WE forsake our past
To march through alien terrors
Which lie beyond the shores
Our feet once trod—
In quiet thoroughfares.

We've long forgotten
The sanctity of life
And our souls have lost
The ways of mercy,
The caress of tears
And the breath of human sympathy;
Our eyes are cold with memories
And full with the drug of cruelty.

The wantonness of living fills us
And our bodies ache
With the intimacy of death.
O fearful passion, this
To crave so strangely
The ecstasy of terror and inhumanity.

Who of us can pierce
The leadened fog of pain
That cloaks us timelessly?

What can we remember
Of love and peace—
Those forgotten dreams
Which guide the soul
Toward a kinder destiny?
What language do we know
To move our lips in prayer—
What sacred words have power
To guide the casual bullet
Toward our brains?

What destiny
Beyond those former shores
Beside futility?
And what is any tomorrow
But the husk of yesterday.