A sonnet that bewails the state of humankind by a =n old lad who has been there been gard done by that.

::::::::

The deep state of the world has me profoundly worried.

The deep, dark web of intrigue expands its tentacles

By the moment, returning us to pentacles

And elixirs and madmen; carnage unburied.

I have been afraid of the darkness all my life.

Not the grand abstract -- black holes that suck out all light --

But the hole in human hearts cut out with the knife

Of hunger and greed, sadism; the vast moral plight.

We're at a crossroads, and it's a long walk ahead

on the dirt lane Frost called the one less traveled by,

migrants, our heads down, into the land of the dead,

our future choices limited to lie or lie.

It feels like an ending, rather than a new start,

but I'm old, estranged, and live with a broken heart.

Submitter: John Hawkins

Submitters Website: https://tantricdispositionmatrix.substack.com/

Submitters Bio:

John Kendall Hawkins is an American ex-pat freelance journalist and poet currently residing in Oceania.