POETRY: Pushing Morality Into the Future

April 9, 2014

by Daniel Carbonella

I neither have the scoop, nor a direct line with the man I do not know the truth, I even sit on the can Do my rhymes seem uncouth? Then let me reprimand Myself, because I am a bit licentious Unrestrained by thoughts deemed conscientious It’s just that notions of anything absolute Steer me towards the desire to shoot Myself in this mind that cannot grasp The hubris required to overstep the impasse That lies before making categorical statements Are they not in need of some form of abatement? If Kant were alive he’d gladly do me the favor Perhaps, dying by his hand is something I’d savor Only in knowing the act collapsed his own rhetoric Killing those who contradict isn’t something he’d make generic His truth, isn’t my truth, and couldn’t descend upon me In any manner that would constitute me as free I regret, Imannuel, it seems impossible to assimilate To those rules which you were so apt to dictate But now there emerges context, culture, and individuality The very antithesis, the consummate freedom spree Is there another alternative which upholds the spirit of science? Finding a man who fashions it, we’d submit to him our reliance From oppression to rebellion, rebellion back to oppression There’s a moderate alternative, but this I need not mention I stated it moments ago and I intend not to bore Its actuation would bring with it the will to restore A balance that humanity seems to desperately need To prevent wobbling off axis and into the weeds A sort of scientific utilitarianism Designed by man, calculated by machine, to repair the schism The fracture that exists between morals and action A dichotomy much in need of redaction A boiling down from an outside source To make it realistic to chart the course That the contemplative life is able to conceive But humanity has been unable to achieve

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