Life is mostly unexamined
it's as though people live
more in constant strife
than being alive
externalities command
(' we have no choice
  but comply' )
the heart and its contents
are neglected and with time
disenfranchised
mindlessly set aside--

how the contagion infests
within the corporeal frame
it spreads far and wide
feelings so long detached
hardly awakened
or gentleness shed
even love grows weary
affections have long died--

survival
what an ugly word
when life is only butter and bread
but not counted as absurd-

where's the song
of joy and love?
where's the laughter
that should behove?

where's the poem
to sing of the day's sunshine?
where's the story
to warm the heart for a lifetime?

where's the embrace
of innocence?
where's the tenderness
to replace indifference?

where's the rapture
and kiss of youth?
where's the empathy
to wipe away the rude and uncouth?

where's the measure
of the sublime and good?
where's the optimistic cheer
to dispel the gloomy mood?

where's the generosity
to share and give?
where's the humanity
others' sorrow to relieve?

where's the surrender
to nature and its beauty?
where's the wonder
the harbinger of immortality?

at the last hour of night
by the lonely sea I ruminate
whose murmurs of man's misery
and his plight sigh and resonate.