we think
that we are the center
of the great universe.

we deceive
ourselves to think
that we must
be obeyed,
that we must
be flattered
and followed
and praised,
for the simple reason
that we are alive
and that,
as we think,
we are the best
creature born
upon the earth
since Christ himself.

we worry
so desperately
about our problems,
insignificant,
and our sorrows.

we shed selfish
tears and
bitterly contemplate
our grief,
but when it all
comes down to
the barest shred
of evidence,
our difficulties
are miniscule and
no matter our pain
we still breathe.

we think
ourselves so
important
that we can
break hearts
and ruin lives
with our selfish
insensitivity because
what they want,
as it is,
is not what we want,
and that is
our excuse,
though we don't
seem to notice
that if we really
looked, we would
see that the
someone whom we
have destroyed
loved us
the most deeply.

it has come to a time
when we have
infalted our self-worth
to such a degree,
when we can
stand beside the
tallest and oldest
mountain
or sit in the sand
on the beach of the
hugest and deepest
sea,
and yet we will
still be thinking
only
of those endless
red lights
and that horrid
someone
at work
and that argument,
that pitiful screaming
argument,
of which we were
the cause.

someday i think
we will all realize
that we are
nothing.

but only
when we are walking
along in our busy lives
on a swarmed street,
when we suddenly
hear a deafening
thunder-like sound
and see a rapidfire
blackening shadow
and look up
to realize that
in fact
the sun is precious
few miles
away from the earth.

and in but a few
milliseconds
we will be nothing
but ash.