Poem: "But if the Onion Breaks"

A harsh moral lesson about charity and the ordo amoris taken from Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov

Aug 28, 2023

This poem was first published in The Lost Country literary journal.

But if the Onion Breaks

By Tyler Morrison

“What’s so hard about loving people?
Send a check, some food, vaccine.”
But what’s the point of loving ‘people’?
You may as well eat Soylent Green.

Even Ivan in his ivory tower
Still loved the human race;
It’s effortless to love a stranger,
Especially one you’ll never face.
Mankind is perfect–a perfect stranger.

And causes, unlike lepers,
Are easily embraced.

So give your heart… to Africa.
Show charity… from the drive-thru lane.
(“Your dollar helped cure cancer!”)

Yes, climb your Onion1 up toward Heaven,
While kicking off those hopeless souls
Still clinging to your callous soles:
Ah, to Hell with all of them!

Grushenka’s Onion Parable, from the Brothers Karamazov:

“Once upon a time there was a peasant woman and a very wicked woman she was. And she died and did not leave a single good deed behind. The devils caught her and plunged her into the lake of fire. So her guardian angel stood and wondered what good deed of hers he could remember to tell to God; 'She once pulled up an onion in her garden,' said he, 'and gave it to a beggar woman.' And God answered: 'You take that onion then, hold it out to her in the lake, and let her take hold and be pulled out. And if you can pull her out of the lake, let her come to Paradise, but if the onion breaks, then the woman must stay where she is.' The angel ran to the woman and held out the onion to her. 'Come,' said he, 'catch hold and I'll pull you out.' He began cautiously pulling her out. He had just pulled her right out, when the other sinners in the lake, seeing how she was being drawn out, began catching hold of her so as to be pulled out with her. But she was a very wicked woman and she began kicking them. 'I'm to be pulled out, not you. It's my onion, not yours.' As soon as she said that, the onion broke. And the woman fell into the lake and she is burning there to this day. So the angel wept and went away.”