Trends Driving The Fear Of Failure

He came out to see if it was true,
that the World indeed had ended
as newscasters claimed, found it
the same as when he determined
to be a troglodyte – slipped
away in the night to live alone.

The lies and deceit had multiplied a
hundredfold, misery and desperation
were manifold in new guises. He
learned the sun neither sets nor rises
and the day’s work never ends,
that trends driving the fear of failure
produce more, not less, of the same.

And on the way back to the subway
he was accosted once and mugged
twice: first by a born-again evangelist
determined to die or save his life; then
by a true desperado who thought he
knew him as the Saviour returned.

He spurned their advances as keen
signatures of grief, firm in his belief
the newscasters were wrong; in
the peace of his cave he let the
walls sensuously close in, safe in
the womb of his terminal being.
© I.D. Carswell 2007-01-25