Those Seven Deadly Sins

I rarely commit poetry these days. However, something in our current zeitgeist filtered through the Erato mist, and I found myself, almost unbidden, using verse to try and come to terms with all the anti-truth that every day dribbles through our consciousness.

Yes, the DOI (Dear Old Internet) pops up sites that provide information on Lying, but the Bible and ethicists are confusing in their categorizations. It all seems to boil down to “It depends.” I prefer something more concrete. And lying (that “don’t bear false witness” in the Big 10) isn’t in the Deadly Seven. 

Anyway, these days, like the judicial definition of porn, we all know it—lies, Lies, and LIES—when we see it. So, later for lying. For the moment, here are a three contemporary responses to that Septenary of Sin. (Four more to go).

---

Greed

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. (1500 - 1550). Avaritia [Avarice] Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/2b64b5b0-504e-0135-1f89-0718dba57193

What’s enough? Why

Isn’t enough enough?

Why more?

Mouths full of diamond sausage

Hands bedorned adecked

Prada’d feet

Armani’d chested

Skin smoothed by flecks

Of real gold.

Riding black zoomcars

To sky high nests

Those funny folks down below

They look like ants.

They are ants.

My tasty ants.

I need more because

They have more, someone

Always has more

Is better than

If I don’t have more

I will be less.

If you had any real worth

You would have what I have

Not as much as I

Because I am the best

But you would have some.

How much do you have?

Only that?

Well, better luck next lifetime.

This is mine

I earned it

This is mine to keep

So I can sleep at night

Secure in the knowledge

That I have more, and am

Therefore

The only best, except for

Him, over there, whose 

Hair is brighter, shines with gold

When I get my golden hair

Then I will be the best

And will have for breakfast

Platinum sausage 

Flavored with ants.

---

Gluttony

Only a little.

Just a taste.

No, really, I couldn’t

I shouldn’t no no no but

It’s so delicious, just a

Spoonful more. Or a little

Bit more. 

There.

Quite enough.

Except that I still feel a bit

Peckish, just one no two

Bites more of this delicious

What is this called? Is it

Lampere de l’envoi juste?

I had that, you know,

Several years prior, it was

Delish. Just really scrumptious.

Just a sip of wine more

To cleanse the palate, you know

And then two, no three, just

Four schmeck-a-licious tasty 

Mouthfuls with, yes, this spoonful

Of whipped cream with cherries

Topped with butterscotch

And chocolate, and there

There is still that roast beef

And Yorkshire pudding, a shame

To let it go to waste. 

I’d offer you some, but then

There wouldn’t be enough

For me.

---

Envy

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. (1500 - 1550). Invidia [Envy]Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/2ce50330-504e-0135-d967-7d38b4fc4826

Yours is better

Mine is best, at least

It was until I saw yours.

Yours has the thing on it,

The one I tried to get, but

They were out of it.

Maybe if I go online again

Just take a sec, then

I could get the thing and

You know, put it on.

Except …

It wouldn’t be the same as yours

Yours would still be better.

I could get a different thing

One that would be my own.

One you wouldn’t have, except

You always have the better way.

Like that little restaurant

On that island, so clever that you

Found it first.

I don’t mind, this being second.

Truly, it’s fine. I’ll be fine.

It’s just that only let me search

Some more, so I can find

That thing, cause that will make things

Fine.

---