MALADY

    All evil, it’s now understood,
    Is but a kind of madness deeply seated
    In errant psyches wandering from good,
    Who should be redirected and well treated.
   
    While in the past we’ve punished and reviled,
    Not spared the rod, but slammed into our jails
    Poor souls we’ve castigated and defiled,
    We comprehend now how such rigor fails.
   
    For only kindness can make others kind,
    And what has made them bad is no bad seed,
    No innate error toward which they’re inclined:
    There’s neither a benign nor evil breed.
   
         We wrongly deem another human soulless;
         It’s sanity we’re seeking, health and wholeness.

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