Dangerous Ideas
John Jessup Kennan 1953 (Pomona)
Dangerous Ideas
Who would have thought that Skinner's Box
Was just a cabinet of potions,
A Utopian diagnosis
For every human-like emotion?
Medical journals will discuss
Menstrual cramps from a Virgin Mother
Lock Jesus in a cuckoo's nest
A danger to Himself and others
Maybe Jesus is bipolar
The shrinks all think Him schizophrenic
But he's certainly not paranoid,
Depressive or frenetic
Carved up his mind with tiny scalpels
Branded him a lunatic
Now he's finger food at dinner parties
Medulla oblongata on a stick
He's a menace to society
The men in lab coats say
He has ideas dangerous
To the Order of the Day
He says He hears His Father's voice
That's a symptom, can't you see?
Auditory hallucination
Doctrinal infallibility
Better strap him in a straitjacket
Chain him to the bed
Shoot him up with Thorazine
He's completely lost His head
Make sure you have insurance
Fill out all the forms
We'll treat you till you meet
Society's accepted norms
And all of our receptionists
Will show you where to go
In the offices of Frankenstein,
Mengele, and Moreau
He's a menace to society
The men in lab coats say
He has ideas dangerous
To the Order of the Day
The lab coats live in gated dwellings
And so do all their treated
We'll dose you up and send you out
Till religion is defeated
And all our ragged fantasies
Have got it pretty hard
You can see them in their fishnets
Down on Stockton Boulevard
He's a menace to society
The men in lab coats say
He has ideas dangerous
To the Order of the Day
© John Kennan 5-12-18
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Submitted by rankstranger7 on May 24, 2021
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:26 min read
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Quick analysis:
Scheme | axbcbdxx dexexefe GHBH xgcgxici xjxjxkxk GHBH xlxlfmam GHBH c |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,497 |
Words | 274 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 4, 8, 8, 4, 8, 4, 1 |
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"Dangerous Ideas" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 Sep. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/100798/dangerous-ideas>.
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