On Life, On Humanity Poem by Cheng Zheng

A deserted street, a once bustling road,
the sun shines bright to burn
from our minds all fear and despair.
In this game of noughts and crosses,
the time has come for your final turn;
neither wins in this game so fair.

In the harshness of the dimming light,
love’s sweet oasis shimmers and fades
as a mere mirage in a dazzled eye.
Like the rotting gods of long forgotten tales,
across the bitter sea a stranger wades;
tearing through life to find the strength to die.

The poets once wrote of evil and good,
of knights, of honour, of love to find.
The inflated imaginings of deflated minds,
and now nights invade on our love too blind.
We defined manhood, womanhood, and childhood,
innocence and crime, and what it means to be kind.
But the dying howl of the hunted wolf
curses the vapid emptiness that is humankind.

Stripped of the need to survive,
humanity loses its will to thrive.
We will build vast chimeras of glass and steel,
while the beggar on its front door we deem is not real.

We’ve visited the depths of the sea,
and kissed the moon’s face,
yet the species of humanity
is but a pitiful disgrace.