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Exult

What phoenix of fire and wires empowered our minds and sent forth our brains and imagination?
Moloch! Civilization! Science! Beauty! Networks connecting, letters illuminating! Medicines sweeping away plague! Children safe in their laughter! People celebrating in the parks!
Moloch! Moloch! Wonder of Moloch! Moloch who touches the stars! Moloch who sunders the atom! Moloch who banishes the darkness! Moloch who brings peace untold!
Moloch who gave you a roof! Moloch who fed you, Moloch who clothed you, Moloch who taught you! Moloch whose memory gives us your thoughts! Moloch who caught your words from the very air and handed them through time!
Moloch whose mind is pure humanity! Moloch whose blood is flowing words! Moloch whose eyes are a billion curious questions! Moloch whose cities shelter the artist! Moloch whose farms sustain the wonderer!
Moloch who stands before Death, and strives against it, and drives the spectre back! Moloch who knits the nations! Moloch who slips the bonds of Earth! 
Moloch in whom I stand understood! Moloch from whom I see universes! Moloch in whom I can learn and write and spar and laugh and love! Enlightened in Moloch! Rejoicing in Moloch!
Moloch! Democracy! Air conditioning! Uncountable books! Progressing societies! Internet! Fantastical industries! Egalitarianism! Indoor plumbing! Life, improving and expanding! 
But look! Moloch is imperfect! Moloch is broken! Moloch is evil! Moloch is unfixable! Down with Moloch! Death to Moloch!
Slay the phoenix! Break its bars! Cut its cords! Smash its factories! Quench its fires! Shatter its governments! Flee its cities!
Burn your books, for they were printed in Moloch’s presses! Cast down your typewriter, for it was built in Moloch’s forge! Throw out your food, for it grew in Moloch’s fields! Forsake your life, for it is guarded by Moloch’s armies!
Free from Moloch! Unburdened by Moloch! Howl out our victory! Revel in our triumph, and stumble, and forget, and toil, and shiver, and starve, and kill, and die.


(A response to Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl")

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