11-29-2023, 09:15 AM
Final Poison
It’s said and it is true:
“The poison is the dose”
which is to say all things
are deadly at some concentration
and all things likewise harmless
at a harmless dose– and yet
there is another attribute
which makes a poison: secrecy.
Poison, as the layman understands,
is not taken willingly
except by suicides. A poisoner
depends on fraud - a show
of harmlessness; war gas
loses effectiveness, timely perceived.
Poison, like the unseen bullet,
is a magic trick, invisible, a con
which could be evaded
were the victim made aware.
Perhaps most poisonous
and unseen thing of all,
deadly in either overdose or under-dose
and even in just measure
is time’s passage with its trick
of always seeming
about to continue
It’s said and it is true:
“The poison is the dose”
which is to say all things
are deadly at some concentration
and all things likewise harmless
at a harmless dose– and yet
there is another attribute
which makes a poison: secrecy.
Poison, as the layman understands,
is not taken willingly
except by suicides. A poisoner
depends on fraud - a show
of harmlessness; war gas
loses effectiveness, timely perceived.
Poison, like the unseen bullet,
is a magic trick, invisible, a con
which could be evaded
were the victim made aware.
Perhaps most poisonous
and unseen thing of all,
deadly in either overdose or under-dose
and even in just measure
is time’s passage with its trick
of always seeming
about to continue
Non-practicing atheist