WHY??????

man’s inhumanity to man
an inexorable wrenching stain
that blemishes man’s existence
and makes our world so pained
the hunched shoulders of man trace the torment
the heavy yoke of our lament so recalcitrant
from the origins of our beginnings
until this day among all days
man’s feet of clay are mired
in this mesh of mangled malaise
why must we maim the reflection
of our own image still
what makes man so wretched
with such a monstrous will?
have the Amistad, Auschwitz, & Big Horn
taught us nothing as we trudge on
must we weep in the blood of our brothers
unchanged by each new dawn?
repeating and repeating our transgressions
stuck on this same sullen path
unwilling to admit torturing our own souls
with such unmitigated wrath
the unending question still unanswered
the essence of man still blind
why must history repeat and repeat itself
an implacable scourge on mankind
an unrequited scourge on all mankind.
c l schrage