Flowers for Eyes

What a changeable creature is man?

He can hide in his shell one moment

and burst forth towards the sun in the next

he has flowers for eyes

and rivers for hands, you see

and his mouth

oh, his mouth is an ocean sometimes

one that swallows whole ships and their crews

their cries and their dreams too

and other times, man's mouth is a mountain erupting

Vesuvius raining fire down

upon the whole wide drunken world

lost in its hate and its killings

"How goes the killing, anyway?"

and

"Who are they killing today?"

Man is a beast of a creature

killing much as he breathes

and at times, man's mouth is a flurry

of kisses

on the green lips of greed

sometimes man

has money for eyes

and claws for hands, you see

and thee hearts he touches

beware