Paradise is a place in preconception, The nothingness that exists before our life in the womb, Not emptiness, I say, but nothingness, For emptiness requires life and experience, memory, and regret, The knowledge that once there was a fullness that is no longer present, Preconception is a blessing. But then we are born, And that first taste of cold air and oxygen makes us scream and shiver in absolute terror, Placed in the arms of the mother, Our need for love begins. Forever hence this need will cause joy and pain, A never-ending struggle, Laughter, tears, self-contempt, shame, Our blood rising and falling like the tides, In accordance with Sun and Moon, Neither being grasped for too long, We only suffer when we attempt to capture any single emotion. There is no always, And there never will be. Happiness, despair, No two moods can encapsulate the human soul, It is a million Gods and contradictions, Child, invalid, criminal, lover, prophet All at once, As the tightrope walker, We are balancing without a net. A bird has more sense, It eats, sleeps, flys north, flys south, But we are victims of emotion, And can as easily hate as love, Kill as hug. When we are good, We tire of being heroes, Because good deeds go unrecognized, Or breed contempt from the very ones we offer them to, We turn back to our defenses again and again, In masochistic fashion, War within as well as without. It is even more difficult to change the mentality of the angry horde, Who have increased their hate by numbers, Taken up symbols with flags and fire, One brain. War offers simple-minded solutions, A swift act of annihilation, But peace, There is the true struggle, Acceptance of your neighbor is one hell of a fight! The atom bomb is a one-button solution, Love takes guts. It is assumed that men play God by displaying the ability to kill, But perhaps that has always been a human trait. It is far more dangerous to free men, To provide sanctuary, Men of power have always feared the emergence of an actual saint, They would snuff them out as quickly as a an insect, Whose buzzing outweighs their lies. Human beings are feeble when it comes to compassion, They must constantly be reminded, Left alone for a moment, And they segregate on the substance of a single black spot. I imagine God to be a very disgusted figure. I dare not make a single demand, Or sink so low as to place blame. But tell me, Will the guilty be smitten? If they cannot perceive of damnation, How can they be damned? When will the meek inherit? What defines meekness? Good? Why would God equate justice with weakness? Does he not then equate strength with brutality? What hope have we, if this is the case? There is something fundamentally wrong with the whole equation. It is nothing less than maddening to assume any one solution, A single answer devolves into a thousand questions, And then we are right back where we started, Hairy and dumbstruck by the creation of fire, The first technological upset, Out of the Dark Ages, And yet to see the light. We roam this earth blind as bats, Scratching and clawing to exist, Masquerading our every intention with a polite word, Though sincerity is never so polite, We are asleep, subdued, medicated, And to think, We pity the lab rat, Pity yourselves with the larger brain! There are so many things to conceal the truth, Gadgets, gizmos, entertainments of all kinds, In Time Square tourists take pictures of pictures! With so much wool over our eyes, I wonder if we ever will see, I assure you, It is easier not to, But what is infinitely worse is to see, And ignore our own certainty, Like faces without mouths, Mouths without tongues, Bodies without spirit, In this way, Though we are created in God’s image, We die, Soulless, Without dignity or faith. It is not enough to shed tears in the darkness of the movie house, True belief is not an hour’s worth, But a lifetime, A faith to surpass the grave, Long after the body is devoured by very indifferent worms. Death is kinder to those who do not fear it, Do not join in with the million self-pitying fools, Who say, “I am only human,” Rather strive to be more, Never cage the lion, Dark powers tend to implode upon themselves, In due course, But only if we rise to the occasion.