Human Nature Doesn't Change (V-Viii) Poem by David Welch

V.
Marie was a newly minted teacher
who got a job at a good private school,
one dedicated to ‘progressive' thought,
which Marie though was remarkably cool.

They had this brand new curriculum that
was designed to address our greatest flaws,
one teacher for all their formative years,
to teach a new way of living, new laws.

They would focus on cooperation,
teach the kids to work for the common good,
to avoid all of the hierarchy,
to be equal, as people always should.

They would go out new men and new women,
to build up a better society,
but Marie noticed problems arising
when her students grew up and hit puberty.

Some of the boys were hitting on the girls,
and demeaning guys who didn't have looks,
some of the girls had the boys do their work,
flashed smiles instead of hitting the books.

The smart kids would not redistribute grades
to the pupil's who were lagging behind,
they cared not for them, but for what they had ‘earned, '
who had put that failed idea in their minds?

She was more surprised at the reunion,
ten years passed, and the results were now clear:
three homemakers, two Wall Street stockbrokers,
four Republicans, and a guy fond of beer.

One guy in jail, and two single mothers,
what had happened to them tortured her brain,
she swore she'd do better, too blind to see
that human nature is not gonna change.

VI.
Denny decided he would go by ‘Debbie, '
and that would end the confusion inside,
he'd always preferred soft, feminine things,
he would be free and let his true self fly.

Since he was not the type for half-measures,
he decided he must really commit,
took the hormones and bought women's clothing,
he was now female, he'd be the best at it.

After a year of living life this way
he went ahead and got the surgery,
all his friendssaid he was so brave,
he posted pictures, his new body to see.

But when he tried to date, he learned real quick
that men aren't P.C. when it comes to sex,
they'd see his picture and then would swipe left,
if they met, they'd move on fast to the next.

And there was all sorts of medicine to take
to maintain all of his new lady-parts,
which felt numb or hurt, were just superficial,
and Debbie realized deep down, in his heart

that nothing could make him what he wished to be,
that in some things people just had no say,
and on top of that, old, masculine thoughts
cropped up, never really going away.

He'd still see a girl and want to pound her,
but such things could never happen again,
they found him weeks later, his body cold,
since human nature is not known to change.

VII.
Fisher was new to the Hollywood scene,
but he'd had an easy time getting it,
he'd written a screenplay set in Georgia
of rednecks who can't handle strong women.

It had lots of action, to draw the crowds,
it was pro-feminist, empowering,
many studios had bid on the script,
and said, "Friend, you're going to do great things."

He shook the right hands, slept with the right people,
then came production, a bit of a chore,
but when it was done everyone said that
it was a film to be praised and adored.

But when the trailer hit the internet
trouble began, all the comments poked fun:
Ninety pound girl fighting a full-grown man?
Only Hollywood could be this damn dumb!

Fisher took to his social media
to defend the movie that he had made,
called out the people as sexist scumbags,
he would not let them just pump out their ‘hate.'

Yet when the movie finally premiered,
to the bottom of the ranks did it go,
it seems people don't like being preached at,
didn't buy tiny girls as action heroes.

The calls stopped coming, exec turned their heads,
he drank his anger until half deranged,
why wouldn't people watch what was ‘good for them? '
Why couldn't he make human nature change?

VIII.
Chris had done lots of studying in school,
and then logically came to understand
that there was no deity in this world,
there was just matter, life, and then humans.

And for several years this just simplified things,
he felt smart, and could see the world with reason,
even felt bad for those folks ‘trapped' by faith,
would often joke about them to have some fun.

But as Chris was approaching his thirties,
some troubling thoughts were bubbling up,
when he started asking moral questions
his understanding got even more rough.

He thought that all morals were relative,
but if so were they even morals at all?
If you only did what you had power to
then did the powerful make moral calls?

He noticed that his atheistic friends
never really could go draw a hard line,
they'd do what they wanted and afterwards
think up fine-sounding words to justify.

He found that friends who still were believers
were better people, more often than not.
They were not perfect by any means, no,
what group of people is free or all rot?

They also seemed to have kids and family,
while the other side seemed mostly alone,
it made Chris wonder what he really valued,
what it would take to have a happy home?

And when it came to physics, the universe,
he increasingly was coming to find
his reason could answer the ‘how' well enough,
but it was useless when it came to the ‘why? '

Yes, Chris realized, later than most folk do,
no one can escape existential pain,
to be a man is to live with not knowing,
because human nature just doesn't change.