Misanthrope Poem by Lonnie Hicks

I hand myself these challenges
and if I win
I preen;

I hand myself these challenges
and if I lose
knowledge and experience I guess I gain;

I hand myself still greater challenges
and hope they don't
ending up educating me to death.

Surviving then
the worst of these,
if lucky,
I could be crippled for life
but end up very very wise.

You know actually
I'd rather skip
the educated, crippled and possibly dead part
and perhaps too
skip the my birth itself
and go straight to heaven in one piece
one day and still healthy,

where God and and I would discuss
the Joys and the Dreads of Earthly Life
in the presence of the angels
and delightful cherubic lads.

Thereby I would gain immortality
and never ever
have to get dead.

Humm..
All in all
I think
this idea is best in many ways.

But if you are reading this
you are already alive
the both of us having made our first mistake;

that of having been born
and probably depending on age
very very very wise.

Womb Returns and Pilgrimages
are clearly out of the question
and therefore I will have to
stop complaining
and make the best
of life here on earth;
weary simile on my face
and reconciled
to the wise joys
of this Earthly
Grand In-Between.