Those pets we love more purely than our family,

yet look at them and know they’re damned

to die, bodies blind and aching, a decade on.

Our children look on us, and we on them,

on our cherished lovers and immortal friends.

The voices of children playing rise,

balls bouncing, feet running all about.

No wonder we have so many churches

or spend our lives in therapy.

But now, let us forget all that

and fight, not to build some Rome,

but for some ideals we never believed in.

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