Man's Torment Poem by Mitzie Holstein

When love becomes hate
It spoils the essence of life itself
When peace becomes war
It tears up and breaks down
The home the church the school
The community and the country
And in the end the whole world will break out into a sweat
A sweat that will spoil human food and animal flesh
Everything will rot breakdown and fester
The children of men will cry from hunger
There will be death and strife among every living thing
Even the dead will groan in their graves
The ancestors long gone will rise up
Their voices will echo and be heard over all others
They will cry for the children who are dying
Have died and continue to die
That is because man has gone mad
Crazier than the wild dogs that roam the forest at night looking for blood
And in the end the souls of the dead will go back to their graves
There shall be no rest for them because man has not changed his ways
They will moan silently
They will not rest
Until man has changed his ways

(I was inspired to write this poem about ten years ago after reading Octavia Butler's books, especially 'Wild Seed' and 'Parable of the Sower.')