poem: A weekly poem, read by the author.

"What Is Man That Thou Art Mindful of Him"

By Todd Hearon
Posted Tuesday, May 9, 2006, at 6:14 AM ET

Click here to listen to Todd Hearon read this poem.


Man is a weapon of mass destruction.
Eliminate man you don't eliminate
the Problem. As dog to its own filth, so man returns

a swarm, a fungus, feeding on destruction—
as when a child I fed upon my dreams
adrift in a pool rainbowed with chemicals

a child already dead, intent on death.
Think of the thousands I marshaled to destruction
five hundred years, having fed upon the earth

(there is no better rhyme with death than earth)—
I tore the heart from Montezuma's bride.
I saw Bikini as a nippled blast.

Moon rises at moth rise. I dream a jungle
from my fruitless cot. I dream my father
spidering the walls of the house in anger.

I think back to my mother. I think
I was a man, born on earth of woman.
Woman is a weapon of mass destruction.

I sleep. I dream my feudal fruitless wars.
I dream of peace the dovewhite dawn explodes.
Man is a weapon of mass destruction.
I know this now. Man's the best rhyme for war.

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Todd Hearon's recent poems appear in AGNI, The New Republic, Poetry, and the Southern Review. He teaches at Phillips Exeter Academy.
For Slate's poetry submission guidelines, click here.

Click here to visit Robert Pinsky's Favorite Poem Project site.
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