[Poem] Destroy All Monsters!

When the orders came, we were not
(could not)
(dared not be)
Surprised:

     Humanity must be preserved
    At all costs,
    Despite a decidedly
    Checkered record
    Since the biased jottings of Herodotus.

That is the old line,
Safe to stand by.
A leaf of litmus on which to write
Our strategies, like old Sun Tzu.

Monstrosity and terror have no place
In our crumbling streets filled with
Graffiti and youth
Who are the heirs to our creations.

Whether you are a lizard with a
Skyscraper between your toes

Or some smaller fiend
In whom we fear to find
Too close a mirror,

There just isn’t enough space in this vast world
For both our dreams.

If only we could truly believe you’d be content
In some distant menagerie,

Instead of plotting where to bury you
                                                          beyond our sight

From On the Other Side of the Eye, 2007