Ugliness

Whenever I am depressed
over the 'human condition';
when the world seems so hopelessly
hell-bent on its own destruction;
drowning in hate, ugliness and stupidity -
I play a mental game I invented
so I'm able to want to live,
so I'm able to forgive
and forget.

Imagine the ugliest slum,
squalor, poverty and desolation,
and then mentally remove
item after item,
all objects and artifacts
that belong to men...
...then, when you’re done
and have nothing left
but the Globe with all its naked inhabitants,
then you know what Paradise
we were given
when this cosmic experiment started -
then you know what's still underneath
of all you want to forget...

(...yes, I know,
we did not invent
this Darwinian nightmare:
there is violence, pain, fear and suffering
built into the nature of creation;
however,
we humans were the first
to create ugliness
where there was nothing
but the splendor of grass, trees, sunsets,
springs, lakes, majestic mountains
and ever-lasting oceans
before...)