This World

Buses pass like dinosaurs,

Upon the asphalt in New York, upon its terrible, vile, heated floors;

I am assailed by man’s cruelty and greed:

By the acerbic, summery breezes which bleed;

By the indifference of the human race

To all suffering, to humility, to truth, to grace.

All women’s eyes are hard with a selfish, steely, mortal pride.

The world is a dragon with a wide, open, razor-sharp mouth.

It is no different in Paris, in London, in China or in the Anglo south.

The mountains and the lapping tide

Of the ocean is indifferent too,

Hostile to all life beneath a spacey, cloudy hue.

I've tried to escape, I've tried to hide.

I will not feel at home until I have died.

I shall only live for heaven’s sake.

To hell with the devil, that ugly snake!

~ John Lars Zwerenz