Humanist Voices in Verse: God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut

Humanist Voices in Verse: God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut

This week’s poem is by Conor L. McKaye. Conor has been a humanist since birth and is an avid proponent of human rights, and especially respects and encourages the present civil rights movements regarding LGBT and 420 cultures. He makes an effort to address necessary changes in the social tone in his writings. 

If you’d like to contribute original poetry to Humanist Voices in Verse, write to hnn@americanhumanist.org with “Poetry” in the subject line. Please send no more than three poems for consideration per week.

 

God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut
 

From the depths of Indianapolis

In 1922

On a day that would be for veterans

But hey, what can you do

A boy made his way into the world

A big-brained Hoosier with a clue

But now he’s made his great departure

Like all before us have

His timequake is now over

And he’s back on free-will path

Kurt is up in Heaven now

Yes, let’s all have a laugh

See the cat, see the cradle too

All confused, I wonder why

So he said, he’s a humanist

So it goes, so am I

Flying in from Tralfamadore is good old Malachi

Kilgore Trout has prepared a speech

Which I doubt will make us cry

The author doesn’t know sappy

And he won’t bother to try

On the carpet of an open room sits a giant crowd

And we rub our soles together

Bokonon would be so proud

We pretend that we don’t practice this

Like it’s really not allowed

Can’t conquer Earth, nor other worlds

It’s not even worth the try

So he said, he’s a humanist

So it goes, so am I

The room is full of life-long fans

Most of whom have never met

They were hooked on reading honest words

Not ready to surrender yet

This makes them extended family

And forever in his debt

Billy Pilgrim brings the Ice-9

Mr. Rosewater the balloons

Words of the day are wampeters, foma, granfalloons

No one recalls having this much fun

In many, many moons

What is age? There are far worse fates

Make me young, he never cried

So he said, he’s a humanist

So it goes, so am I

—Conor McKaye (2007)

 

 

 

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