Fractional Disorder

Gary Beck/Fractional Disorder

 

Dread

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.

 

Exploration

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.

 

Origins

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.

 

Parallel

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.

 

Nothing Changes

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'Fractional Disorder' is an unpublished collection that examines the anomalies, frequently unnoticed, that confound us.