a tree may fall

so much to do and so much more to fear
words limit us and do not give us ease
on this and this alone the world agrees
as day follows day and year succeeds year
the twists and turns of each normal career
seem but the leaps of ignoramus fleas
or else the palpitations of disease
and we are pushed to the far edge of care
those are the choices of an age of crime
when every speaker utters a new lie
word after word oppressing human hearts
until we seem to have run out of time
and nothing's left beneath the hateful sky
that will respond to our remaining arts