The Population Of The Earth,2018

HOW IT GOES: Roasted in wrath and fire, And this o'ersized with coagulate gore, With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus Old grandsire Priam seeks... For lo! his sword, Which was declining on the milky head Of reverend Priam, seemed in the air to stick. Pyrrhus did nothing.... HAMLET, Act II, lines 401-404; 416-420 How are we all connected? And how tightly does this connection bind us? Are we indeed, in Cain's desperate words, our brother's keeper? Is that the notion which stays the murderous hand, arresting it in mid air, so that the knife and and hand together fall, and come to rest in silence. We need an answer very soon, almost immediately, because at this moment many hands are raised in hate, many thoughts are pure murder, and the notion of brotherhood is further eroded by every justification of "a just war, " or "a preemptive strike, " or "a war to end all wars, or that shocking oxymoron, a war which will secure the peace. The tasks ahead to "abolish war, " or "to agree to disagree, " or to conceive the notion of a global government will be achieved by evolved human beings, themselves products of a focused evolution, with an ethical teleology. And at this point, our poems will become lamentations for lost hopes or celebrations of hopes being fulfilled. And someday, maybe as soon as next week, I will write a poem distinguishing wisdom and folly from each other. Will it be my last poem? HOW IT ENDS: ... So after Pyrrhus' pause, Aroused vengeance sets him new awork... Pyrrhus' bleeding sword now falls on Priam. HAMLET Act II, lines 427-428; 431-432