Oed Loves Me Not Poet Free verse

Mothers Devouring Their Children

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Francisco_de_Goya%2C_Saturno_devorando_a_su_hijo_%281819-1823%29.jpg 

Follow the above link. 
That's a picture by Goya 
entitled "Saturn Devouring His Son." 
Have you ever thought of yourselves 
as someone like this Saturn? 
No? 
Are you sure you won't ever sacrifice 
your boyfriend or girlfriend, lover, spouse, or lover? 
Are you sure you won't? 

Then give yourselves time. 
Wait a decade, two decades, or three. 
There may come a time when something happens, 
obliging you to choose 
between destroying your own sanity 
and sacrificing the one you love — or claim to love. 

You may have believed you're a loving person 
who can't ever betray the one you love 
— or the one you believe you love. 

But look. 
The love you claim to have and have cherished all your life 
may be just a pipe dream. 
It may be just a castle on sand, or a hologram. 
The love you claim to have may be just an illusion. 
It may be only a reflection of your own selfishness. 

To survive in this cesspool of a world, 
you just have to be healthily selfish. 
True, you shouldn't be downright selfish. 
If you are, people will hate you 
and you'll end up leading a solitary, lonely life. 
But that doesn't mean you're completely selfless. 
Absolute selflessness is totally incompatible with this hellish world. 
To survive here, you just have to maintain a reasonable degree of selfishness. 
That's what I call "healthy selfishness." 

So, people of the world, be healthily selfish. 
If there comes a time when you have to choose 
between maintaining your own life or sanity 
and sacrificing the one you love (or claim to love), 
you'll certainly choose to maintain your life or sanity before you know it. 
That's the way you're programmed to do. 
The genes in your body compel you to do so. 
So don't worry. 
You'll surely sacrifice your child or lover 
whom you always thought you were ready to sacrifice your own life for. 

Long live your healthy selfishness! 
And may Heaven bless your self-love eternally!

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Leanne Lovejoy-Burton December 26, 2017 at 5:28 PM lol. Fascinating read. Perhaps sacrificing oneself, and giving the one you love release/freedom - is in fact, your only mode of survival, freedom. Oed Loves Me Not December 26, 2017 at 6:35 PM Wow, thank you for your third heart-warming message. I greatly appreciate it.

Richard Lamoureux December 23, 2017 at 1:31 PM For me I think our world has leaned far to far towards the direction of selfishness. There are many in history who have put aside their own needs for the greater good. I'm not entirely sure what healthy selfishness is, I will need to think on this. Blessings to you as well, Merry Christmas. Oed Loves Me Not December 23, 2017 at 11:59 PM Thank you, Richard Lamoureux, for your heart-warming comment. I appreciate it.