Antinatalist Poems
Antinatalist Poems
Habeas Corpus
by Michael R. Burch
I have the results of your DNA analysis.
If you want to have children, this may induce paralysis.
I wish I had good news, but how can I lie?
Any offspring you have are guaranteed to die.
It wouldn’t be fair—I’m sure you’ll agree—
to sentence kids to death, so I’ll waive my fee.
Bittersight
by Michael R. Burch
for Abu al-Ala Al-Ma'arri, an ancient antinatalist
To be plagued with sight
in the Land of the Blind,
—to know birth is death
and that Death is kind—
is to be flogged like Eve
(stripped, sentenced and fined)
because evil is “good”
in some backwards mind.
veni, vidi, etc.
by Michael R. Burch
the last will and testament of a preemie
i came, i saw, i figured
it was better to be transfigured,
so rather than cross my Rubicon
i fled to the Great Beyond.
i bequeath my remains, so small,
to Brutus, et al.
Paradoxical Ode to Antinatalism
by Michael R. Burch
A stay on love
would end death’s hateful sway,
someday.
A stay on love
would thus be love,
I say.
Be true to love
and thus end death’s
fell sway!
Lighten your tread:
The ground beneath your feet is composed of the dead.
Walk slowly here and always take great pains
Not to trample some departed saint's remains.
And happiest here is the hermit with no hand
In making sons, who dies a childless man.
Abu al-Ala Al-Ma'arri, antinatalist Shyari, loose translation by Michael R. Burch
For the gods have decreed that unfortunate mortals must suffer, while they remain sorrowless.—Homer, translation by Michael R. Burch
It is best not to be born or, having been born, to pass on as swiftly as possible.—Homer, translation by Michael R. Burch
Not to have been born is best,
and blessed
beyond the ability of words to express.
—Sophocles, translation by Michael R. Burch
Oblivion: What a boon, to lie unbound by pain!
—Sophocles, translation by Michael R. Burch
It’s a hundred times better not be born;
but if we cannot avoid the light,
the path of least harm is swiftly to return
to death’s eternal night!
—Sophocles, translation by Michael R. Burch
How happy the soul who speeds back to the Source,
but crowned with peace is the one who never came.
—Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, translation by Michael R. Burch
Since time dawned
only the dead have experienced peace;
life is snow burning in the sun.
—Nandai, translation by Michael R. Burch
Keywords/Tags: birth, control, procreation, childbearing, children, antinatalist, antinatalism, contraception
Copyright © Michael Burch | Year Posted 2021
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