Don’t look away from the abyss, If you do, you can never acknowledge it exists. It’s not as much outside us as within us. Recognize this. The only way out of it Is to march through it. To live it is to embrace it. It may hurt, such wounding is necessary, Those are the required marks. People forget that history repeats itself, The cost of forgetting is too high.

You ask me what can you do about it? You can do nothing. But you can try to be human. You can weep at such breaking, Remember when you do this very carefully Because you are not as much weeping at such meaninglessness As much as recognizing that such a beast exists Within each one of us. You will know when it flashes, In anger and in shame, when you can’t bear to look At your own face in the mirror. You will cry out, Aloud, why this way, why this now, first to Mom And then to God. This is the common denominator, this is what makes us, men of spirit and white bone.