This world is an asylum for the insane.

There is no other place
where so much love
begets so much destruction.

There is no other place
where seas are born of tears.

There is no other place
where winds are born of sighs.

There is no other place…

The joke is on me.
I am stranded here
among the other patients.

The joke is on me,
for I am born
already stained by sin.

The joke is on me…
But nobody’s laughing:
The fool has died today,
survived by bitter jests.

The joke is on me…

Its irony does not escape me:
hell masquerades as paradise.

Perhaps there is redemption still
for our collective plight?

In jail, even the guards are inmates:
imprisoned by the bars they guard.

All souls confined…
Division is illusion.
The only choice—
which side of the divide?

Yet misery endures…

We are the same.
Our fate is one.
The locks were forged
in our minds.

We write the laws
and kneel before them.

Perhaps it’s time
for a clean slate.