An old one and a new one

Two poems - one written when I was 19, the other written today at age 28. Which is which? I can't really tell a difference. I don't think that's a good sign.



In a vexed and daunted drama, we played the part of fools
who screamed aloud an endless string of nothingness
born of the pretended passion we thought we possessed.
Deluded-
we could not understand the true intent
of God’s offering to children here forgotten
and while following a winding path shaped toward satisfaction,
we tried.
Cried aloud our heart’s desire! Born of artful apetite,
a spark of fire
intense as the sun, and then
void.
And how even then from our phantasmic path we strayed
And we (like Caesar, who supposed he had the world) are betrayed.



We are cruel, clumsy creatures
Running in circles and
Running in circles and
Running into each other.
Tracing obscure angles into the earth,

We glow with desperation and despair.
Our frustration is blinding.

We are a savage, sightless species.
All of us hurting and
All of us hurting and
All of us hungry and
There is not enough.