My Refusal.

Pondering the lay of the world

Witnessing the way of events,

Floating in this listless sea

Do you not feel sick?

Don't you taste that slimy slug

Slithering ooze bold and thick,

As it cloys the world and self

With trails of fiery words, soured emotion

Closing your mouth with it's clammy plug?

Can't you hear that rattle and clink

That follows the slam of drawers,

As clacking keys move vault doors

That clang shut in cavernous sound,

And yet fail to muffle the constant blare

Of the wailing whir of money counters?

Can't you see the vivid smear

Of leering Pride and mounting Ego

That rapes the innocence of good Intention,

While the hustler Greed chalks his cue

And pockets his ball in the left corner,

As he eye's Necessity's deepening cleavage

As she bends over the table clad in sultry red?

Don't you smell the thickening fumes

That rise from the bog of arrogance,

Which bubbles and boils in this heat

With the wafting perfume of lilies,

From crushed petals strewn about,

That swell through the stench of smoke?

Shouldn't you sense, by now,

The corruption of an imperfect ideal

Or the pandering of weaker wills,

Polluting the instance with circumstance

Inviolating the mitigation of damnation?

This is the home stretch, no doubt.

Nearing the future with soft tread,

Ought the blade cleave the mists

While the ploughshare yet exists?

*---------------------------------------------*