Impermanence
Thousands of poems on impermanence,
But more are the holy verses
That promise forever and ever.
We people have it all mixed up
We have seen soldiers turn
We have seen big men take to their heels
The castle has fallen apart in front of our eyes
How many times before?
I can’t even remember.
Its stones scattered on the hilltop
Its embers dying in the morning sun
Its reinforced gate mutilated; half-burnt
Hanging from a hinge
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We have seen cannons overturned
Their noses pushed into the ground.
The folks have it all mixed up
I among them,
Thinking by default that things will last.
Big men cling to permanence
Men risen to bigness do the same
For dear life
Proselytise permanence.
Some evenings I dance in a nondescript inn
With friends, drunk and joyful in the present
Everything moves like a resolute glacier
To the nothing-at-all ocean
The end, the end
Thank goodness for the end
Of everything.
