A Heart Of Stone

You need a heart of stone
to endure the indignities
of this weird world
of this absurd age;
indignities perpetrated by man against man.

You need a heart of stone
when dog eats dog,
and there is confusion everywhere

You need a heart of stone
to brave the sordid profanities
starring the human race
in the face

You need a heart of stone
to endure the vile violations
of human rights;
the depravity of the world,
the dehumanization of this age

You need a heart of stone
to live in this mysterious
uncanny world,
a world full of fears:
fears of human extermination
in the face of arms proliferations;
fears of insecurity in a growing turbulent age

You need a heart of stone
to brace the internal turmoil
of your inner self;
  You need a heart of stone
to suffer your own folly
your own uncensored, unaccounted accounts

You need a heart of stone
to endure even your
irrational actions, your emotions,
your impulses,
your indispostions, your wanton actions whose accounts
you cannot render even to yourself

You need a heart of stone when nature, even nature bullies you
caricatures you, buffets you;
even when nature manipulates you
to its whims and caprices,
tosses you about roughly
like a ship in a stormy sea;
hulls you dangerously about as when a malicious child toys with an insect,
doomed to death, but through slow and gradual death

You need a heart of stone even when maimed and left impotent,
even when there is futility in advance as well as in retreat;
even when danger looms ahead; when all hope seems lost, and there is no string to cling on

You need a heart of stone
to wade through this life
to scale this hurdle called life;
to run this race
this race you never
bargained for, but which you must complete in victory,
or exit
in defeat
in shame
in ignominy


You need a heart of stone