Black and white
Everyone is right
Egos aflame
In life’s sadistic game. 

Opposites repel
Send the other to hell
As the shades of grey
Are strained away. 

Evil and just
Cannot and must
If only we were open
We wouldn’t be so broken. 

He flashes a toothy, twisted smile
His finger up–he has a point
Manic expression clouds his eyes. 

“Science!” he exclaims. 
He had found an answer 
“Science is the explanation,
God is naught.”

He wags his finger. 
“Men are from monkeys
Miracles are false
Science can be seen
It is the only thing
Worth believing.”

His wife shakes her head
Prays for his soul. 
For who planned this world
What power gifted life
Who created the universe
In equilibrium and perfection?

Science?

Little girl

So tiny is she
So scrawny.
Skeletal body,
Saucer eyes yearning,
With straggly hair,
Whipped across her face.

Hungry child.

Ate last–no memory,
Clean water,
Never tasted.
Flies in her eyes,
Too listless
To brush them away.

Poor orphan.

She has no one
Nothing but pity
From worthless pennies.
Aged far beyond her
Impoverished form,
She hasn’t long to last.

The Convalescent

War-torn struggle has left you
Broken,
Young soldier of lost brawn and heart,
But words of defeat you have not yet
Spoken.

Festering wounds, lice, and you are
Sick,
Gangrenous veteran of honorable forfeit,
Those gashes are maggot-crawling at which you
Pick.

Heart and soul of yours cruelly
Belittled,
Despairing once-lover of robbed passion,
Infidelity at your absence has made your courtship
Futile.

But you are youthful still and
Strong,
Resilient convalescent of hope,
Your will to live is puzzling, almost
Wrong.

For what have you to live for with everything
Leavened,
Homeless possessor of nothing material,
Why recover over closing your eyes to
Heaven?

Old as the mountains,
She rocks at her porch
Wispy gray cloud
Once shone like a torch
Her heart is at ease
Where once it was scorched.

Wise as the Alps,
She reminisces her past
Her husband, her children
Have all gone to pass
How her life had unravelled
At first slow, then to fast.

Strong as the Himalayas
She has seen all
Justice and chicanery
How the best ones must fall
And in the face of death
Those who stand tall.