When I was barely eighteen, I put on my wall
A quotation on intolerance translated from Voltaire,
Which struck me as very wise, and which I proceeded
To memorize, at least in English, word for word,
And which I have never since forgotten:
“The right of intolerance is absurd. It is the right
Of tigers, nay, worse than tigers. For they do but rend
And tear for meat, while we rend and tear each other
For paragraphs.” Clever misdirection, that, I realize
After all these years spent bloodying my mind with words.
The paragraphs are the tigers, and we are what
They rend and tear, when they’re not commanding
Us to rend and tear each other on a paragraph’s behalf.
And who have I been willing to rend and tear
Because I thought it was their faith in their favorite
Snarling paragraphs, not mine in mine, that was absurd?
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