Poems Don't Have to Rhyme

More Things In Heaven and Earth

You said that I dehumanized you.

To that I say, no, I have not dehumanized you, at least not in the way you think.

For if I were to see you as less than human,

it is because you speak as if you have never heard music,

have forgotten that the birds still fly on feathered wings of many colors,

and behave as if you had never known love in any form or capacity.

Even then, I can only feel sorry for you.

I pity you for your sorrows and disappointments,

I ache as only a stranger does when confronted with the tragic life story of another human being.

But I cannot sympathize with you,

nor will I pretend to understand your bleak emptiness,

the hard, unforgiving gaze you turn upon the world

or your nihilism.

If you truly believe all is nothing but a blink

in the eye of an uncaring universe,

in the view of which everything is worthless trifles

bubbles in the cosmic bathtub,

stardust and carbon soup governed by base lusts,

and a false god who must answer for his crimes against you personally,

yours is a more narrow and boring philosophy than mine.