The Injustice of the World


To the fly in my coffee

(That’s now on the floor)

When you banged on the window

I saw you before

I saw when you struggled

I saw when you strained

I saw when you bounced

On that glass window-pane


But I didn’t see all the thoughts in your head

The small thoughts, the fly thoughts:

Those thoughts are now dead

They drowned in the coffee

Cold-black as the night

That all flies go into

On their final flight


But I’m only human;

And you’re just a fly

And maybe it’s karma:

For I let you die

We are blind to the things that we most need to see:

Like if there’s a fly mixed in with my caffeine.