Saturday, April 23, 2011

Poetic Asides April Challenge Day 07 prompt "what if"

What If No One Did the Right Thing Ever

What if everyone was only out for himself
Got up in the morning with only one thought
What’s in it for me?

And if there wasn’t anything in it for them
They wouldn’t, couldn’t be bothered
Doing whatever

What it each and every person just ignored
Each and every other person no matter how much
Trouble the other might be having or in?

How would that work I wonder if selfishness
Was so finely honed that all else was lost
Compassion, altruism, care, anything that wasn’t

Self-serving would not occur to a person to do
Or even to think about and the world would turn
On a very different axis

Of course self-harm would be a thing of the past
For people of a certain type of selfishness
Would never think to consider suicide

Murder yes – self-murder? Not a chance
Unless, unless – they were so desperate – dying
Seemed to be the ultimate thing they could do
For themselves

But – if no one ever did the right thing – would anyone
Ever know exactly what the right thing was
And how would that be determined anyhow

After awhile, wouldn’t the philosophy of right and wrong
Become quite convoluted and confusing
For who would set the standard and what moral compass

Would there be to guide this selfish new order
Of souls who cared for nothing but themselves
What if they never cared to wonder about any of this?

Would it make any difference to anything or anyone?
What if this ever comes about – what if ...

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