Manifesto 
            Because I am an artist, things affect me deeply & I am constantly depressed. Because an artist must be totally honest, I can say    
            without a trace of self-consciousness    
            that my inability to deal with the world proves definitively my superiority    
            to most of the human race, yourself included.    
            It is impossible for you to understand even grossly the nature of my pain.    
            In your dull way, you can only admire my suffering,    
            as you might admire a computer or a large, shiny car;    
            I suffer for all of you.    
            As you go daily to your draining and repetitive jobs,    
            I feel the futility of your lives.    
            I understand without having to experience.    
            I am the antennae of the race,    
            & for that reason much more fragile than those of you    
            who make up the thick and ugly body.  
             
            originally published as Manifesto of the Consumptive Poets League (KOFF)
              © copyright 1997 Maggie Dubris & Elinor Nauen