WAR POETRY--award winner

I SHALL NOT LIVE

I CAN’T LIVE IN THIS VILE WORLD
[A desire not to live in a world full of murderers and marauders.]


Let me put paid to the world.
It’s just good for nothing.
Every nook and corner has
A murderer lurking.

Butterflies are killed by wasps.
Flowers are pricked by thorns.
On every heart, every mind,
Satan his stamp adorns.

Jesus is hanged on the cross,
The innocent are bombed
By marauders who, themselves,
Will one day be entombed.

This world is not fit to live;
Man has forsaken God.
Truth and justice are suppressed
By unkind greed and fraud.

Can I change or blast the world?
No, I know that I can’t.
Shall I live in this vile world?
No. Oh, no more! I won’t.

• Written in abcb, 7-6-7-6 format


M C Gupta
1 April 2006