Love Poem: Ethics
Christopher Bowen Avatar
Written by: Christopher Bowen

Ethics

Ethics

Taught accurately to account
for each reward an exact amount
a Kantian conscience reprehends
a stray Romantic dividend.

Publicly our just deserts
are measured by our type of work.
For what surgeons are forgiven
clerks and watchmen go to prison.

Few are ushered through the streets
in black sedans by the police
to carpeted chambers where the great
decide the future of the State.

Love, Genius, Power are for the elect.
Underpaid and oversexed
most lives are lived where intersect
the ragged lines of job and sex.

So if future preference won't assuage
your trussed Byronic middle-age,
think of all the lions who
are languishing in Christian zoos.