Illegitimate

We cannot but pity the boy who has never fired a gun; he is no more humane, while his education has been sadly neglected. - Thoreau

i thought the battle was over

the war done

when you showed up with your bullets and machine gun

no one declared victory

no one won

thinking it a lame pun

yesterday being tomorrow's

illegitimate stepson

Author's Note

"The woodchopper reads the wisdom of the ages recorded on the paper that holds his dinner, then lights his pipe with it. When we ask for a scrap of paper for the most trivial use, it may have the confessions of Augustine or the sonnets of Shakespeare, and we not observe it. The student kindles his fire, the editor packs his trunk, the sportsman loads his gun, the traveler wraps his dinner, the Irishman papers his shanty, the schoolboy peppers the plastering, the belle pins up her hair, with the printed thoughts of men." - Thoreau