People

I

People are cruel

One false move

They’ll abandon
You

People are fools

Who carp about a dream

Who judge you

For your living means

And fools must crow

And tell you how

Everything
In life’s just swell

You’re silenced as

Their schemes implode

You find that you

Can’t be so bold

For life is tough

So off they rush

To mark their stone

To meet their god

And bones are crushed

And made to dust

Then come the wind

To take them up.

II

Life like a fig-leaf

Only wilts, its 

Fruit in the sun

Pipped and dry

Life is a punt

Stuck in the silt, it

Marks the question

Of why

We are human beings

Not

Human
Kind.

© Martin Slidel 2018

Photograph © Martin Slidel 2018