The Uses of Hate

Ross Eisen

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The Uses of Hate

I have hated for an excuse to clean
Have laughed the more because the joke was mean
Have learned what I could never be,
And fought that bitch for the window seat. 

I hear again the chorus of concerned
Who beg that I admit that I have learned
That hate — in all its forms to be despised —
Is ignorance and childishness but glorified,

And this true, this we live,
That around us, glory is pejorative,
So we reprove, destroy, elate
In just uncaring dare to hate. 

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Ross Eisen is The Pedestrian’s resident poet.

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