Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Over 500,000 Dead

 

The World Is a Beautiful Place

 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021)

 

The world is a beautiful place

to be born into

if you don't mind happiness

not always being

so very much fun

if you don't mind a touch of hell

now and then

just when everything is fine

because even in heaven

they don't sing

all the time

 

The world is a beautiful place

to be born into

if you don't mind some people dying

all the time

or maybe only starving

some of the time

which isn't half bad

if it isn't you

 

Oh the world is a beautiful place

to be born into

if you don't much mind

a few dead minds

in the higher places

or a bomb or two

now and then

in your upturned faces

or such other improprieties

as our Name Brand society

is prey to

with its men of distinction

and its men of extinction

and its priests

and other patrolmen

 

and its various segregations

and congressional investigations

and other constipations

that our fool flesh

                                                                 is heir to