THE PRICE OF COMPASSION

The rain breaks down on the roof,
squandering it's quota of happiness
Because the beautiful ones are always easier to forgive.
How often we peel cruelty off them like masks
Who is there to question the motivations of light?
Among clouds, a sculptor, but a thief through glass
Among shadows, a painter, but deceiver through water
In a roomful of appulse, I hear a single sound
The blood rushing up to my head, like sirens.

So hang up your motivational posters now
Because the sky is full of messages I can't decipher
I could have sworn cartoons used to be funnier when I was a kid
And that friend used to be closer to me
than my jugular vein
Now I can see him extracting himself
From the symbiotic equation of our lives
to fly amok in the wind
Like a catatonic vampire

A child reading his own obituary,
to a crowd of uninterested people
Petrified ants navigate marshes of sugary syrup
A beetle's unseen heart
pulsating darkly in dyslexic veins,
Books are still lying undiscovered in the tree trunks
Why do you look at other people's faces
on the morning train?
Is the scenery that arresting?
One house estate giving birth to another copy
The illusionary advertisements,
mocking you through a slogans promise,
Pristine white teeth,
permanently out of your reach