All That Once Was Poem by Maurice Harris

All that once was beauteous, now causes disdain;
All that once was joyous, now causes pain;
All that once was wanted, now is ridiculed;
All those that once were celebrants, are now all fooled
By the hatred and deceit now spewing
From your mouth-as though a volcano-what are you doing! ?
Either you are wrong now, or we were both wrong then;
Either love was never real and we sing hate's song when
When we fool ourselves into thinking we could have let love in;
Only Divine Inspiration from Above, in
The form of an as-yet-unknown Answer,
Could lead us to embrace the rose or clutch the Cancer!
The fortnight still to come shall bear out same-
Love must defeat hate, in order to clear its name!

-Maurice Harris,19 February 2012