So it cannot be done to live
without being the cause of death
we know it in our blood running
unacknowledged even by us
we know it in each of our dreams
and in the new day’s rising we
recognize it one more time
address it by another name

it is the need to tell ourselves
how it is not our fault that makes
it more terrible the hunger
to pardon ourselves because of
who we are the earnest belief
that we have a right to it from
somewhere because we deserve one

that brings up the pain of birth to
become cruelty and raises
story upon story cities
to indifference denying
existence to most suffering
while living off it kept alive
by it called by it from moment
to moment and by the right name