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Sonnet on Humanity

While monkeys get a hand-job at the zoo,
The Nothingheads reject their birth control,
They feel the life return, stop pissing blue; 
They hope this makes them monkeys, with a soul. 
Meanwhile the porn-fed circus donkeys bray,
And, pissing crystals, need oblivion;
And, chem-i-cally neutered, hope today 
Won't bring the consequence of what they've done.

So welcome to humanity, sit down!
Stay sharp! Don't numb yourself! Be more humane.
And walk the tightrope, like a Pierrot clown,
And watch the animals who wit profane. 
Dehumanised they're rump steak, à la carte;
They're rendered into fodder for my art. 


© Sara Nicola Ruth

Big Up

⛱ “Welcome to the Monkey House” is a Kurt Vonnegut short story that is part of the 1968 collection of the same name. It is alluded to in God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater  as one of Kilgore Trout‘s stories.

In the not-so-distant future, a criminal mastermind named Billy the Poet is on the loose, his goal is to deflower one of the hostesses at the Ethical Suicide Parlor in Hyannis. The world government runs the parlors and urges people to commit suicide to help keep the population of 17 billion stable. It also requires that the hostesses at these establishments be virgins on the basis that this would make the idea of suicide more appealing, especially to middle-aged men and older. The government also suppresses the population’s sexual desire with a drug that numbs them from the waist down (but does not render them infertile, as that is seen as unethical and violative of the religious principles of many). This drug is called “Ethical Birth Control”, and was originally developed by a druggist who had been offended when on a family outing to the zoo the group were confronted by the sight of a male monkey masturbating. 

The poem below is by a Nothinghead (a rebel who doesn’t take their compulsory government-issue birth control pills) called Billy the Poet. You need to know:

• Ethical Birth Control pills turn your piss blue;
• Ethical Suicide Parlours have purple roofs, they are always next door to a Howard Johnson’s which has an orange roof;
• Suicide Hostesses are virgins and wear purple body-stockings.

I did not sow, I did not spin
And thanks to pills I did not sin.
I loved the crowd, the stink, the noise.
And when I peed, I peed turquoise. 

I ate beneath a roof of orange;
Swung with progress like a door hinge.
'Neath purple roof I've come today
To piss my azure life away. 

Virgin hostess, death's recruiter,
Life is cute, but you are cuter.
Mourn my pecker, purple daughter -
All it passed was sky-blue water. 

Sara without an H > this collection: Pennies From Heaven > Awakening > Miracles > Love > Secrets > Humanity > Beauty > Gender > Family > Connection > Revolution >> next collection: Major Arcana