home | archives | bio | stories | poetry | links | guestbook | message board
previous | poetry index | next

Pantoum for the Corruption of Paradise

 

water is wet
like toxic waste
the sky is blue
where there is no hole

like toxic waste
our world is corrupted
where there is no hole
to hide the evidence

our world is corrupted
through greed and selfishness
to hide the evidence
where all mankind is to blame

through greed and selfishness
we decimate living things
where all mankind is to blame
for the destruction of paradise

we decimate living things
as we consider ourselves better than everyone else
for the destruction of paradise
must have been someone else’s fault

as we consider ourselves better than everyone else
we destroy the world and our brothers. creation
must have been someone else’s fault
because we only know destruction

we destroy the world and our brothers. creation
like all acts of nature, a mystery that is beyond us,
because we know only death and destruction
an end to the world we never appreciated

like all acts of nature, a mystery that is beyond us,
past, present, and future can lead to folly or hope,
an end to the world we never appreciated
or a world of plenty and peace

past, present, and future can lead to folly or hope,
we must end our path of destruction
or a world of plenty and peace
exists only in a Dreamworld

we must end our path of destruction
so that water which is more than wet
exists only in a nightmare
and holes in the sky are things of the past

 


previous | poetry index | next
home | archives | bio | stories | poetry | links
| guestbook | message board

Pantoum for the Corruption of Paradise, by Paul Cales, © October 2001