I guess there's just a meanness in this world A slumped forward concession A teary-eyed wasted insight A brushfire war on every front Inattentive lack of ambition Offset by the collective acts of indiscipline and inspiration And I too sate that hunger for the deep And give up on everyone and everything And I too sate that hunger for the deep daily As often as I recommit readily To what I still hear and read and see That life is still worth living Without gods or masters or heroism No martyrs basking in religious contemplation But there are those who deserve respect Carrying on to the dawn Doing good without remuneration "Who built the seven towers of Thebes? The books are filled with the names of kings Was it kings who hauled the craggy blocks of stone? In the evening when the Chinese wall was finished Where did the masons go?¹