TOOTH AND NAIL

By now the tea was a faint

 shadow of warm pleasantness,

 and the filter was like a swamp

 algae-animal swimming in it.

 The young man who could survive

 the cold in shivering annihilation

 was growing weaker, and secretly

 realised that perhaps

 every shelter could be a trap?

 - For with him went despair

 and restlessness, and there is

 no final escape, no way out. 

Now Existence is stagnant.

 Molar teeth and wisdom teeth are

 like glass bells, and the selfishness

 of common self-pity is mine alone,

 - it preserves everything inside.

 For unconsciously in all breathes

 and eats the thirsty and insatiable

 instinct for acceptance:

 I let troubles into the house like a pipe:

 but to take care of troubles - who can?

 Who? Indeed, the saying could be true:

 He who dares wins? 

And every human thinker

 - if there are still any under

 the clouds of executioners,

 and in great confusion such

 - is burnt out, killed by the grinding

 workman-o'-thee, 

the years that have been like cockroaches!

 - No man here is worthy of cheap pity.

 Nor is unselfish forgiveness now handed

 out as a bagful on the Icy Street;

 the precarious breadwinner,

 like a cheap crust of bread,

 still simmers in the sewers'

 effluent till he reaches the reservoirs.

 The uncertain uncertain

 is the one that gets closer every day.

 It threatens and threatens! 

Circumstances are 

now more and more harsh,

 They embrace the infinite

 with the ancient uncertainty:

 In a changing world Man also adapts

 to malleable interests,

 And adapts mostly, job!

 In the trampling of morals,

 man becomes a beast,

 if he does not cling

 to his humanity tooth and nail!