Karma
This poem appeared in Poet: An International Monthly in July, 1973.
Karma
What if it is as some have said
Those some few who refuse to be dead
That we have all been here before
Remaking our lives, remaking our bed
Were you a soldier, were you a whore?
Were you once hidden behind the locked door?
Were you sometimes a slayer, sometimes slain?
Have you died with a whimper, then with a roar?
Was there an Eden and did it have rain?
Were you once Abel and then also Cain?
Were you once me and have I been you?
Have we been mad and are we now sane?
Is what they call Karma eternally true?
Are we now simply getting our due?
Was justice here when this world was new?
Did we laugh at that when this world was new?