WILFUL DESTRUCTION

TO MY GRANDCHILDREN  i am sorry

Breathe deeply the air
Industrial pollution
A planet choking
No God will save you, aid you
Earth is dying; no one cries

© M Durfee
7.13.2017

WE LIVE BY FEROCITY

THE BEAST

I pace with lions.
They move with pride.

I, shoeless, move soulless.

They are silent in their movement;

I have no fear of noise

or need to pray.

We pacers meet in the middle,

neither is yet meat for the other.

It is hot, they have rugs for coats.

They lay down to rest

thinking my shadow will shade them,

it is not big enough, never was.

They rise, I add more to their misery.
“There is no beast more ferocious than man” I tell them.

My ferocity proves I am man, not lamb.

They stalk off exposed

now that the grasses are gone.

There are no roars of pride.

No calling to uncaged others

of their diminished kind

to free them from their rutted path.
We are equals only in that lack;

the freedom to roar, to call out.
I am still more, I am king of the planet

I do not find satisfaction in being superior,

they could have attacked,
they could have mauled me,

tore me to nothing,

stopped me in my track;

they chose to quit instead.

© M Durfee
4/4/17


45 years ago on 4/4 I was 17. I enlisted. It was a smart move on my part. Even though, at 20, I was battered by a hurricane that broke my left elbow, I have no regrets.

HIDING IN THE CROWD

MADE TO BE DESTROYED

More than one grain is needed

to make a beach.

More than a single drop must be

to form a wave.

The sand is a constant

never all stolen or replaced.

The waves are changing

ever changing with tides and tears.

Man is an ocean and a beach

as the tides of time and age

sunder his soul

between love and rage.

It’s been said

there is strength in numbers.

I for one will remain

a sole drop, a single grain.

I’ve no pressing need

to stand for or against the sides and times.

I’d rather simply evaporate in the heat made

under climatic strain of Mans self-inflicted pain.

© M Durfee

8.8.2016