Necessary Lies

Beneath what we find necessary lies
A world of things that we could live without:
Alarm clocks, canned asparagus, flies,
Venereal diseases, death and doubt.

The scent of certain strangers, I could lose.
I’d execute my neighbor’s yippy dog,
My neighbor—all my neighbors—who refuse
To pick up poo. There is a catalogue

Of ships in Homer’s Iliad, Book II,
I am just itching to eliminate:
Let Helen rot. Yes, love, even you,
When you do something that I really hate,

I think about eliminating. But
I usually just slam a few things shut.