SONNET FOR ALL CREATURES Oh! No! No all things are not bright and beautiful There is a darker aspect to creation Must it be ever so in this holy alchemist’s crucible? At least for the span of current iteration The cockroach, spider and serpent have their dominion While lion and jackal dine on deer and zebra Our lives don’t all play out in a fair Elysium But a diverse world to be faced without anaesthesia Do you therefore crave perfect heaven as your apogee With neither conflict, nor any challenge dared Where dragons’ breath is tepid and tigers eat broccoli And time would pass in unending blandness shared Perhaps the Ancient Mariner gave resolution in his confessing Liberation came when he granted each creature his blessing