Modern Life

by Ben Szwediuk
(Wales, UK)

Civilisation, or so I'm told,
is a terribly good idea.
Where rational and considered
views are aired without prejudice or fear.

It builds the walls that keep me warm
and educates our young,
It sublimates our short and painful lives
With fine words read, and others sung.

It fills our day with sparkling lights,
to distract us from the dark and grey,
of the paths marked out in peasant blood
and from which we may not stray.