Now Does Our World Descend

Dedicated to the Victims of Persecution in Police States
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by E. E. Cummings

Now does our world descend
The path to nothingness
(cruel now cancels kind;
friends turn to enemies)
Therefore lament,my dream
and don a doer's doom

Create is now contrive;
Imagined, merely know
(freedom:what makes a slave)
Therefore, my life, lie down
And more by most endure
All that you never were

Hide,poor dishonoured mind
Who thought yourself so wise;
And much could understand
Concerning no and yes:
If they've become the same
It's time you unbecame

Where climbing was and bright
Is darkness and to fall
(now wrong's the only right
since brave are cowards all)
Therefore despair, my heart
And die into the dirt

But from this endless end
Of briefer each our bliss--
Where seeing eyes go blind
(where lips forget to kiss)
Where everything's nothing
-- Arise, my soul; and sing