Butt

A billion is a ponderous number

a solitary one

followed by ten—yes, ten!—

zeros, each an abyss of despair.

You need four commas just to write it down!

Four waystations to pause and wonder.

And not one in ten billion ever saw

a century and a quarter.

And you thought you could live for ever!

Ponder that butt in the gutter.

Its fate is your fate is my fate is our fate is their fate.

It’s not just in stars you find singularities.

© 2013 Slush Poet

Dorian Gray

Millions to get energy refunds

Sunday Express, 22 January 2012

There is a law which states the total pot

of energy is fixed and will not flex,

that my long-nurtured lethargy will be

not overcome by action nor by rest,

that my silted reservoir of joire de vivre

can only be refilled at the expense

  of someone else's grief.

I wish no stranger suffer for my needs,

and less again my wants, and anyway

my tiredness overwhelms. He who'd live

forever needs the hubris of Dorian Gray,

at once unable to pass a mirror without

a glance, yet terrified of what he'll see,

  his karma staring out.

(c) 2012 Slush Poet