Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.
Attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson
Since we’ve built a better mousetrap,
The world takes note and beats a path
To our door, while we, enraged, slap
Those migrants back, nurture such wrath,
Such flaming discontent, our souls
Shrivel to ash—humanity,
Displaced by hate, and love by shoals
Designed to wreck without pity.
“Get lost!” we shout, “you tired, poor,
Huddled wretched refuse, homeless.
Invent your own damn mousetrap; stress,
When the world beats at your damned door.”
(8/14/10)