Here’s a poem I wrote back in 2012 after Aaron Swartz’s suicide. Still saddens me…

In a Country Where Geniuses Kill Themselves



for Aaron Swartz

You realize your understanding

varies wildly from the actual

and what you call your new

enlightenment makes even

your radical facebook friends

confident you’re about to im-

plode and yes the more you

try to convince people your

screws are secure the looser

they get and before long you

notice everyone you took for

a prophet wound up a sad news

blip about a noose or a knife

or a case of poison and you

see why people avoid the truth

with good reason