Kurt is up in heaven now

REQUIEM

The crucified planet Earth,
should it find a voice
and a sense of irony,
might now well say
of our abuse of it,
“Forgive them, Father,
They know not what they do.”

The irony would be
that we know what
we are doing.

When the last living thing
has died on account of us,
how poetical it would be
if Earth could say,
in a voice floating up
perhaps
from the floor
of the Grand Canyon,
“It is done.”

People did not like it here.

–Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007)

Vonnegut got it — and he accepted the futility of getting it with heroic grace. This world is one big hospice, but we can still work to make each other as comfortable as possible. That was his lesson for me. Be kind.

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