The
alternative to explaining the inexplicable is silence.
Falsehood! Lie!
Life is beautiful.
From time immemorial, Hitler said,
they knew better than any others
how falsehood can be exploited.
Is not their very existence founded
on one great lie?
Falsehood! Lie!
Life is beautiful.
Faced with defeat, one wins.
Faced with loss, one finds.
Faced with death, one survives.
Sorrow is full of wonder, happiness full of strife.
Falsehood! Lie!
Life is beautiful.
Naturally! Our race is superior, the inspector said.*
Our race is a superior one.
Look at the perfection of this ear.
Falsehood! Lie!
Life is beautiful!
Superior is inferior,
humans are human,
a race is meant to be lost.
Hitler the Nazi is Guido the Jew.
Falsehood! Lie!
Life is beautiful.
Look at that organization!
Did you see those soldiers?
You have to stand in a line to get in.
Don’t worry, though, they’ll let us in, I reserved!
Falsehood! Lie!
Life is beautiful.
Incarceration is liberation.
In is out and out is in and lies are truth if truth can lie.
I told you! We’re going to have fun.
I’m going to tell you a fable.
—
Felicia Mitchell
*If
the verb “to be” signifies a truthful state of being but is uttered
by an imposter who cannot literally “be” whom he pretends “to be,”
or “is” for the time being, it is essential to reverse the meaning
of the verb to take it, in this context, to mean figuratively “is
not.” Furthermore, the Aryan race, which is not superior, is not a
race.
This poem was
constructed 28 September 2005 for a lecture on deconstruction and
Roberto Benigni and Vincenzo Cerami's screenplay Life is Beautiful,
with some lines taken verbatim for illustration, and it is dedicated to my students:
Courtney
& Courtney & Jessica & Josh & Katie & Lori & Molly & Morgan &
Patricia.
