Suns will rise and fall
In the course of a day
While sons rise and fall
The generational way.
Tribes come and go
An epoch grows from a day
Civilizations rise
In spite of the decay
The prepayment of suffering
Costs more than suffering felt
Often the pain we imagine
Is an iceberg no heat can melt
Tribal perturbations tick onward
Feral fears too dark to remember
The call of the void is inscrutable
Life is an ornamental ember
The blood of the covenant
By design is much stronger
Than the water of the womb
And it lasts considerably longer
We order disorder from the fray
Then wonder why things fall apart
Entropy the only law that applies
When the end was foreseen from the start
The tribes guarded the stories
The stories grew into lore
Embers become the ornaments
For dreams we failed to explore
The fire at sunset burns slowly
Made neither of flame nor of smoke
But the generational coal remembers
That it was once a mighty strong oak
Mannino Acid 