An Analysis of Israel Keyes Suicide Poem

 

Israel is explaining several thought processes he has had on taking the life of another human being. 

 During the poem, he refers to himself as a parasite and his victims as hosts. This suggests he sees death as inevitable, it is already hidden inside all of us and that is confirmed when he uses the imagery of a man driving past a cemetery and then a funeral home as if to highlight that we cannot escape death, we cannot escape the inevitable, we cannot escape what he is about to do to us. 

 He sees all his victims as mortal equals, which hints at a big lack of respect for authority or academia. No matter your class, creed or intelligence if you are his victim he will have the utmost power over you and he will rob you of all your superficiality. He uses this loose term "free society" as a type of excuse for his actions.   

 There are many elements of sexual arousal in the poem, he focuses on the lips and the hair of his victim and refers to their "flower", he also says the more innocent they are the better, there is more shock value, they will not have the experience to even be able to outwit him or predict his actions, and he has a way of marring them, making them unclean.

 He talks about a change of state from one to another; the pupae to the moth (not sure if this is an actual reference to the Hannibal books) and the fall from grace (original sin) which is partially spiritual.

 He then claims that "words are weak" which is strange because this is the last piece of writing or words that he will ever speak. 

 Another interesting paradox to me from this poem is that maybe this idea that no matter what a human being can achieve, intellectually or on a professional level with skills, can be completely wiped clean or sponged away by him, is mirrored by the fact he can take his own life and sponge clean all of his actions in his own mind. As death to him erases all.