In the prevailing climate
of imminent destruction
of civilization,
it may no longer be
in our nature
to save ourselves
before it is too late.
I will no longer go
down to the river,
follow its flow
to the embracing sea,
stand at the water’s edge,
hunger the farther shore
where pleasure or peril waits,
uncertainty dismissed
in the need for discovery.
Despite all doubts
about the inherent goodness
of mankind,
we never could endure
if evil predominated
in what for many
is a demanding life,
thus rewarding
the fundamental nature
of most of us
who would rather build
then destroy.
Roman citizens might have paused
on a beautiful summer day
on cobbled streets
for a moment of enjoyment,
even after the Goths took over
imitating Romans
with their barbarian ways.
Yet human nature is constant
and only the deepest despair
prevents interludes of pleasure
no matter how dire
conditions become.
Despite evolution,
thousands of years
of progress,
hundreds of years
of industrial development,
most of us are needy,
many of us are desperate
and wealth accrues to the few
who do not share
and begrudge help
to those struggling to survive
the disease of poverty,
loss of jobs,
loss of homes,
a criminal abuse
of the human condition
in a purported democracy.
'Fractional Disorder' is an unpublished collection that examines the anomalies, frequently unnoticed, that confound us.