Pandora Addresses Evil, With Regrets

Pandora Addresses Evil, With Regrets

I was so curious,

I so wanted to see

that that box took

the better of me. 

The very first time

an evil appeared,

I laughed

and I laughed

and nearly laughed myself to death,

the world quite negligent.

I never meant to

service you, I laughed only

out of nervousness, you

then took advantage, 

fed off it, grew.

And so time became the vacuum

the gods slipped through.

They went up to the remotest heavens,

became removed. 

Their voices echoing through

my nights did not consoie my hopes. 

They spoke to me in sleep, 

whispering, Eckliepsis,

Archilochus was right.

So now with the sun's 

rays vanishing to none,

as I contemplate

all I have begun, 

with rain forests disappearing

and global warming long begun, 

theft, murder, rape,

victims burned at the stake,

homicides, suicides,

the orient's enforced

more-than-one-child abortion spermicide,

the hole in the ozone 

unfriendly aliens and things just might slip through,

all this plastic in the oceans,

all the chemicals in our food,

please take it all back,

I beg of you. 

(Written 1986. The original version did mention aliens along with other things that might slip through the ozone and though I omitted that when it got published in this magazine, I have added it back here.)