Young David Hume Throws a Tantrum
by Robert Kinerk
David Hume is the Scottish philosopher who argued that you cannot move from a descriptive world to a prescriptive one, from what is to what should or ought to be.
I cannot leap from is to should
Though father yells and mother cries.
I would not do it if I could.
I wallow in my babyhood.
No moral law from it derives,
No moral bridge from is to should.
My is on which I’ve always stood!
My earth. My sun. My seas. My skies.
I would not trade you if I could.
The grown-up people sing their good.
Their canticle’s a path of lies
From generous is to stingy should.
Why would I buy their song of should
and trade away my paradise?
I would not do it if I could.
To save myself it’s understood
I din my ears, I blind my eyes.
I cannot leap from is to should.
I would not do it if I could.
I cannot leap from is to should
Though father yells and mother cries.
I would not do it if I could.
I wallow in my babyhood.
No moral law from it derives,
No moral bridge from is to should.
My is on which I’ve always stood!
My earth. My sun. My seas. My skies.
I would not trade you if I could.
The grown-up people sing their good.
Their canticle’s a path of lies
From generous is to stingy should.
Why would I buy their song of should
and trade away my paradise?
I would not do it if I could.
To save myself it’s understood
I din my ears, I blind my eyes.
I cannot leap from is to should.
I would not do it if I could.
Robert Kinerk writes fiction, plays, and poetry. His most recent publication is "Tales from the Territory; Stores of Southeast Alaska." A long-time Alaskan, he and his wife, Anne, now make their home in Cambridge, MA.