eventually in idea barrages

there is no lasting profit to cruelty
no permanent gain involved in selfishness
because the richest and most powerful humans
to ever walk this earth, this well-ruined earth
all, to a woman and a man
either are dead or will be
dead in less than a century’s time
nothing has changed that
nothing is changing that
nothing will ever change
that

all this dull cheating
all this back-stabbing
all this willful torment
of each other for another
horde of tokens and baubles
pretty soon, you’re dead
pretty soon, I am dead
pretty soon, we’re all dead
and it all meant nothing
even less than nothing
a blip in time
wasted on being
a bastard so you
could have stuff
for a blink of
the cosmic eye

you can beat yourself up
convincing yourself that
you have to beat others up
to prove you are Somethin’
silver spoon cradle to
silk-lined oak coffin
but when you’re dead
baby, it’s all gone
finito abscondus
left to the vultures
avian or otherwise

so why not be decent?
why not instead be kind?
why not in the
vanishingly brief time
you get upon this rock
bask in the joys of
doing something for
someone else a bit?

it’s gorgeous
it’s glorious
man, it’s amazing
knowing you helped someone
hurting just like you are
for the little time they get
just the same as your instant
for that tiny moment of grace
you feel like you actually lived
didn’t just toil
didn’t just grind
didn’t just scheme
plot or maneuver
you helped
you ameliorated the awful pain
of living so short a damned time
in someone else just like you
for maybe the briefest of whiles
but it happened
you did it
you were there
they were there
pain was lessened
you could’ve
done that

instead of
whatever the hell this is
gathering sand at the edge of the sea
waiting for the tides to return
and dash the whole farce to bits
maybe not knowing the when
but knowing it was coming
the crest of some distant wave
destroying your little empire
when instead you could have
been helping others hurt less
and feeling love

the only thing that
might
live beyond us, love
and even that’s a
crap-shoot but it’s
a shoot worth crapping
better than all this subterfuge
mais out, garde l’eau
apres moi, le deluge
for credits on some screen
for land that will erode
for numbers in a code

maybe try loving instead
give it a shot before you’re dead
as we all will be
subsumed by sea
eventually

Last updated April 05, 2022