All it would take would be

a single
unforgivable sin,
not the kind that pursed-lipped
celibates condemn,
but the infant put on a bayonet
in front of his mother.
Is it really possible
that almost anyone,
standing on that short,
ancient ledge
on which we were all born,
could voluntarily
make such a jump off of it
into the inconceivable
darkness,
from which
no return is possible,
and where one's
only companions
are the others
who have wrung their own soul's
neck?