I’ve got a trolley question for you.

Train’s barreling towards a man
who sat himself on the tracks,
full knowledge of what it’ll lead to.

No one is on the other track.

But if you divert the train
police will come and tie
that man up, escort him
to an ED loud and full
of dying people, from which
he’ll be involuntarily admitted
to a sterile room where he is
sedated and medicated
and discharged the moment
he seems calm enough
to not immediately
go back to the tracks
and sit himself down again.

No saying if he’ll do it next
week or month or year; the
reason he sat down hasn’t
been addressed yet, just
temporarily suppressed.

Say he sits down on the
track later but decides to
do it in the middle of the
night so no one sees?

Some find it surprising
do not harm isn’t in
the Hippocratic Oath
but what non-harmful
thing did we do here?

Was it right to
to save the body
at expense of the soul?

What does it say about us,
ignoring the other trolley
behind us, the one barrelling
towards all those souls
we involuntarily committ
to awful places when we could
pull the lever and create
much less awful places
to send those whose lives
we wish to save?

‘Cause that’s not the real
trolley we’re on, is it? The
one barrelling towards all
those bombs for brown kids?

—

Photo by MassiveKontent on Foter.com