OSCAR WILDE
and PARIS
and ME
and Colm Toibin

I was sweating
breathing hot-wired rage
once again
at the Jihadists
the Muslim terrorists and
their knee-slapping stupidity
their blither and blather chatter
their tweeting-hash-tagging-sputtering
blow-harding murdering mouths
freed from their brains
free, I say,
from their BRAINS
until,
UNTIL

After the Paris attacks
I was shaking my head in disbelief
at the spectacle at home
spit-balling candidates running
for the Republican nomination for
President of America
not the United States
but America
candidates who,
too,
are separated
from their brains
their BRAINS
yes their brains.

I was wrecked
surrounded by fools and
fool hards
at home
and abroad

until,
UNTIL

I discovered
in
Colm Toibin’s
passionate and honest book,
LOVE IN A DARK TIME,
the following quote
from Oscar Wilde
written sometime
during the final three years
of his life:

“I never came across anyone in whom the moral sense was dominant
who was not heartless, cruel, vindictive, log-stupid and entirely lacking
in the smallest sense of humanity. Moral people, as they are termed,
are simple beasts. I would sooner have fifty unnatural vices than
one unnatural virtue. It is unnatural virtue that makes the world,
for those who suffer, such a premature Hell.”