BRIEF JOY

All joy should be brief

And unequal to

The hard headlines

Hardened hearts will not abide

The soft bed of inertia

 

And when the loud lash

Of man’s inhumanity hits

We’ll bear it in solidarity

Take up the fight readily

Against the ebola of greed, fear, hatred.

Fight the idea

That a life of dreams

await to be plucked

From suburban hangars of desire

 

We will not drive our fancy cars

Through the ghettos of the homeless

Fearing the hollow men who stand

At the intersections of history and early death

– Death by the popping sounds of 1000 door locks

Protecting soft lives 

 

Joy should be brief to prepare

For the fall from grace’s rim

From the summit of kindness

Where the air is too thin