The road to madness

Cease feeding thyself with tales of the wise
Democracy is so the heralds proclaim
Yet vultures descend from the blackening skies
And none can withstand them, nor answer their name.

No whisper of trade in the flesh of mankind
For the thunder of rockets hath drowned every cry
The armies of nations, in gladness combined
Dance round the great tempest that darkens the sky.

Here hatred and quarrels divide peasant and lord
And the only road left is a pathway of pain
With children like shadows, by poison restored
I ask of my soul: Do I dream, or am I insane?

The engines of death spread their arms to the night
A bearded fiend points at a screen with his hand
And through dying cries, fading far from the light
I roam a burnt forest, alone in the land.

A fatal dark wave sweeps the continents wide
While nations grow restless and peoples depart
No bread for the hungry behind walls fortified
I call for a vessel, and cast off my heart.

The compass reels madly, its needles astray
I shriek like a savage, with war-axe held high;
Yet no silver vessel comes down from afar—
So, alas, I am but a poor star-sailing fool.

And thus through the ashes I wander alone
Where kingdoms are dust and the heavens are scarred
I seek for a meaning, but none can be known
For the world hath gone mad, and its future is doomed.


24.7.26