POEM - The Seven Deadly Sins are deadly precisely because they are so very hard to see coming. We drift gradually, not into the quicksand of pure evil, but slide slowly into the tar pit of more of the same small things...

::::::::

The Seven Deadly Sins are deadly precisely because they are so very hard to see coming. We drift gradually not into the quicksand of pure evil but slide slowly into the tar pit of more of the same small things multiplied MAGNIFIED to the exclusion of our humanity. The Public Relations Department of Temptation portrays it as something unusual, as if you'd know it when you saw it, in essence, "Don't talk to strangers." But Temptation's real face is commonplace. That's how it goes about its work. In the beginning it's so mundane no one is afraid and therein lies the danger. It might begin as a pair of beautiful shoes the taste of gourmet ice cream or an array of NASCAR memorabilia the desire for a larger house the acquisition of a more beautiful spouse or the feeling from playing poker or downing a shot of tequila. And so Temptation tiptoes in on tiny, treacherous feet, replacing the reciprocal bond created by human interaction with the insatiable desire for more material things which have not within them the means of our satisfaction. Thus a succession of collections of things rings hollow since they can't reflect to us our own humanity and consign us to the treadmill of alienated accumulation which is why relationships with things prove unsatisfactory. The love of THINGS produces a material venereal disease not the carefree lifestyle promised by craven corporate minions shilling them on TV. Giving in to this seduction is a victory for predator corporations which condemns consumers to endlessly seek the pseudo-satisfaction of self-gratification. We want what we want when we want it and Americans have come to feel it is their right to callously use others to procure it by having them do our dirty work and fighting our fights. 'til we finally foul our own nest with the excrement of our own selfish wishes which sets in motion the self-fulfilling prophesy of environmental apocalypse. ENVY is the desire for having more of the things we see others possess. ANGER arises from the desire to have all of our demands met. LUST is the desire to satisfy the self even at the expense of another. PRIDE is the desire to feel bigger than or better than your brother. GLUTTONY is the desire not just for more but in fact the desire for too much. SLOTH is the desire to have it all without having to do very much. Such acts of repulsive arrogance are all children of the same poisonous creed and America's being devoured by the Mother of them all as consumers, former citizens, worship GREED. "Many people have the wrong idea about what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification, but by fidelity to a worthy purpose." - Helen Keller - Vi Ransel

Authors Bio:
Vi's works appear widely both in print and online. She conducts Poetry Workshops and gives readings in Central New York. Her latest chapbook is "Sine Qua Non Antiques (an Arcanum of History, Geography and Treachery).