Hallucination

human innocence
constrained in
cultural derivation
stays my hand

we’re the same
by common roots
but see with
ethnocentric shades

too many of you
breeding irresponsibly
in the name of your
mezzo archaic gods

too few of me
shielding the last
open spaces against
relentless clamour

the reckoning’s not
gods’ righteousness
related second-hand
but living space

it disappears at
the same pace as
your virtuous march
to self-actualisation

any World we are
to share is substantially
larger than this
hedonistic hallucination
© 25 May 2009, I. D. Carswell