If perdition indeed
holds a place for
faces such as mine,
the lines of which
are the essence of
a depressing viewpoint,
then I openly welcome
my fate.
Lucifer, set my plate
somewhere between
Dickinson and Twain
so I may learn from
their sardonic wit
just what it means
to be human
and what it means
to love and to feel
and to reel against
it all and to fall
and to rise again
over and over till
the end of time in
the sublime ecstasy
of the soul's droll
brilliance.