Good People

From the kindness of my parents   

I suppose it was that I held   

that belief about suffering   

imagining that if only   

it could come to the attention   

of any person with normal   

feelings certainly anyone   

literate who might have gone   

to college they would comprehend   

pain when it went on before them   

and would do something about it   

whenever they saw it happen   

in the time of pain the present   

they would try to stop the bleeding   

for example with their own hands   

but it escapes their attention   

or there may be reasons for it   

the victims under the blankets   

the meat counters the maimed children   

the animals the animals   

staring from the end of the world