Deep in the Tall Grass ~ Philip Brent

So you pays your money and you takes your chance
That is something I have been told, though not read
Along the way you may learn the steps to the dance
Hope you will master them, before you end up dead

Many cute descriptions, we use to describe our lives
A dance, a ride, a steady slog, or part we briefly play
Whether if you sit safe at home, or you juggle knives
Each sunrise brings a new, completely unknown day

No matter how many times I write, or what words
I, with all the rest, am buffeted, shuffling to and fro
Pasture overused, over-grazed, our unmoved herd
Predators who eat us, leave us nowhere else to go

I baa and bleat about new path; it’s an untried way
Escape alone is not my dream, and so my hesitation
Please follow in small groups or one by one each day
Till only killers remain, sans hope, prey, vegetation

If you believe in any deity at all, I urge you, please pray
Expose the wolves who wear your guise like their own
To destroy, not protect you, and to keep peace at bay
And, they will more than miss us when we have flown

Leave them to murder, butcher themselves and others
They will fight with guns, bombs, unimaginable horrors
Club, tooth and claw, decimating sisters and brothers
Till one alone, and none, nothing, to fight and die for

By effort, luck, we’ll have found meadows, fresh, fecund
Where anger, pain, sorrow will still intrude in our lives
Not simply peace and plenty, you can’t expect a refund
Humanity only, no extremes, when our maturity arrives