Portside

1. How much poison are you willing
    to eat for the success of the free
    market and global trade? Please
    name your preferred poisons.

2. For the sake of goodness, how much
    evil are you willing to do?
    Fill in the following blanks
    with the names of your favorite
    evils and acts of hatred.

3. What sacrifices are you prepared
     to make for culture and civilization?
     Please list the monuments, shrines,
     and works of art you would
     most willingly destroy.

4. In the name of patriotism and
     the flag, how much of our beloved
     land are you willing to desecrate?
     List in the following spaces
     the mountains, rivers, towns, farms
     you could most readily do without.

5. State briefly the ideas, ideals, or hopes,
     the energy sources, the kinds of security,
     for which you would kill a child.
     Name, please, the children whom
     you would be willing to kill. 

Wendell Berry is the prolific author of novels, essays, and books of poetry. He is also well-known as environmental activist, cultural critic and farmer. Whatever form his writing takes, his message is the same: if humans are to survive, we must learn to live in harmony with the earth. (This poem appeared in the volume Leavings published in 2010 by Counterpoint Press.)