scapes

Everything's poised, ready to fall,

In the state of Nature,

And in the state of Men;

The leaves glow, ready to catch fire;

The rockets slumber,

Counting from ten.

High in the ether

The horsetails whip,

Sensing the looming hurricanes;

Across passing faces

The anxieties slip,

Tensed for their learning, burning pains.

Everywhere life

Is ready to die,

The sagging sunflowers, the trembling corn;

The terrified infant

Cries his first cry,

His heartfelt wish that he'd never been born.

For ours is the pride

That presages the fall,

Ours the vanity of money and stuff;

You ain't got nothing

If you ain't got it all,

And even with everything, you ain't got enough.

So come, you earthquakes,

Come, you great storms,

Launch every rocket, fire every gun;

The locusts of freedom

Are gathering their swarms

While we pack up the oceans and stub out the sun.