Lew Welch

What strange pleasure do they get who’d

Wipe whole worlds out

ANYTHING
To end our lives, our

Wild idleness?
But we have charms against their rage—
Must go on saying, “Look,
If nobody tried to live this way
All the work of the world would be in vain.”

And now and then a son, a daughter, hears it.

Now and then a son, a daughter

gets away.