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Depravity Begins (A Found Poem)

Thinking of love / as a radical act. An eclipse of moths. A man without dust on him.

My grandmother’s stories were folding inward, like a star under gravitational collapse. Conspiracy is a love affair with power that poses as its critique. Shitposting as government policy. The Chicago Rat Hole Was Not Made By a Rat

Spinoza urged us to live sub specie aeternitatis—under the aspect of eternity. See yourself as just being one atom in a universe of complicated molecules—would that make things better? At this point, I have stopped buying green bananas. 

People returned to Pompeii, eking out a meager existence in the ruins. The shrewdness of apes. On Ecstasy, Octopuses Reached Out for a Hug. 

A line traversed repeatedly until it becomes a path is called a desire line. To be confounded then, is happiness of the highest order. The river breathing deeply, as it must. 

 

*Citations in order of appearance:

Stanza 1

  1. “How to Live.” Dillard, Todd. Only Poems. 
  2. “GREGORY CREWDSON: An Eclipse of Moths.” Photography series.  
  3. “Another Doctor Is Dead in Gaza.” Dalton, Clayton. The New Yorker. July 19, 2025.

Stanza 2

  1. “Uncanny Testimony.” Lee, Benjamin Charles Germain. Longreads. September 25, 2025.
  2. “A critique of pure stupidity: understanding Trump 2.0.” Davies, William. The Guardian. October 2, 2025. 
  3. “Do you know about shitposting? It’s cheap humour, rage bait – and now, it seems, US government policy.” (Opinion) Topinka, Robert. The Guardian. October 2, 2025. 
  4. “The Chicago Rat Hole Was Not Made by a Rat.” Tamisiea, Jack. New York Times. Oct. 14, 2025.

Stanza 3

  1. Palmer, Parker J. Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation. Kindle Edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2004. p. xviii.
  2. “A Breath of Fresh Air With Brian Eno.” (Edited Transcript). “The Ezra Klein Show.” New York Times. October 3, 2025.
  3. “A Prophet’s Diagnosis.” Coppins, McKay. The Atlantic. September 30, 2025.

Stanza 4

  1. “Survivors who fled Pompeii . . .  returned to eke out a “post-apocalyptic” existence in the ruins” from: “Eruption survivors returned to live in Pompeii’s ruins.” Kingston, Tom. The Sunday Times. August 7, 2025.
  2. “their meager existence” from: “Incredibly Well-Preserved Roman Slave Quarters Unearthed At Pompeii.” Taub, Benjamin. IFL Science. November 8, 2021.
  3. “A ‘Shrewdness’ of Apes and Other Odd Group Names.” Messenger, Stephen. TreeHugger. Updated June 26, 2019.
  4. “On Ecstasy, Octopuses Reached Out for a Hug.” Klein, JoAnna. New York Times. September 20, 2018.

Stanza 5

1 and 2. “I’m Lost All the Time. So I Went on a Labyrinth Vacation.” Contreras, Ingrid Rojas. New York Times. March 22, 2023.

3. “James C. Scott and the Art of Resistance” (Book Review). Saval, Nikil. The New Yorker. April 7, 2025. 

Author

  • Carrie Myers, PhD English and American Literature, NYU, is a writer, spiritual director, and Ignatian Exercises director. She is the co-founder of The Stillness Collective and a writer/editor at Sustainable Faith. Carrie lives in New York City with her husband, three children, two bunnies, a goldendoodle puppy, and a few plants that are miraculously surviving her care. Her poems have appeared at the Walls-Ortiz Gallery and Center, in Feminist Spaces and Last Syllable, are forthcoming in Odd Pocket and Gyroscope Review, and have been nominated for Best of the Net.
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