homo crudelis (revised, new title)

[brynmawr1]

homo crudelis

4:50 a.m.
chasing the dog
to shut down his bark
i see three stars aligned
like a telephone pole in the sky.
i’m a tv baby
unimpressed.
if i’d seen them move
into a magic column
the sky animated
i’d bow before them
but i’m a child no more
possibly i never was.   maybe?
Himmler and Stalin 
Pol Pot and Pinochet
were children once;
were they ever innocent?
i doubt it.
it’s my time to question
every link back 
to our fabulous myths
most of all
the myth of the child
presumed innocent 
only playing 
below an overarching night
but the seed of destruction
was burgeoning inside.
i had a childhood
and i remember enough of it
to be dangerous too.
Once i helped my father
to plunge a seine into a lake
taking a harvest of bait
leaving behind
a mass of minnows
too small 
to be used on the trotline
dying on the bank.
it’s true i tried to save a few
but i knew it was hopeless.
there’s an old photo
from those camping trips
my father pretending to pour coffee
into a tin cup i held towards him.
i’ll not plead innocence
not now
not ever again.

hey,
I like the progression from the stars to evil and the theme of false innocence.  Where it falters for me is when you compare yourself to people like Pol Pot, etc.  The underlined part I think could be cut though I feel it's another example of innocence.
Take care,
steve