We often claim to know what we would do
if, when we least expected it, the attic
door burst and Gestapo special agents came.
We tell ourselves it wouldn’t be the same.
Our outrage would compel an automatic
response—one brutal and effective, too.
How would we behave if on a flight
diverted to a grisly martyrdom
or grounded while the world negotiates?
No matter which alternative awaits—
a nullifying fear or tedium—
we’re certain we’d pull out of it all right.
Just so, we are assured that when extreme
contingencies arise, they will present
no challenge our resourcefulness can’t match—
no nightmare that our cunning won’t dispatch—
as if the tortures others underwent
were trials our wish fulfillment could redeem.