Arbitrary, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @brianrrs37 on @Twitter)

Flung on this canvas, a Jackson Pollack
Entwined asphalt, suburbs, interstates
Skyscrapers, monuments to our narcissism
Conflated self importance, and what of luck

Am I to think, that since such misfortunes
Have yet to befall me, that I am chosen?
While a doctor tells a couple
Their child will die of cancer?

Am I to think, that on that trip
To Alabama, with my mom driving
Blowing a stop sign, having a semi
Almost t-bone us, that I am special?

Am I to think,
That 3 million children
Who die from malnutrition each year
That I have nothing to fear?

I am no fan of this mad magician
Who claims to have this elixir
Juxtaposed on both sides
By Dismas and Gestas

I cannot buy this absurdity
Knowing that the surface
Of the sun, in the future
Will exceed the orbit of Mars

No, I cannot pretend
On this violent planet
Full of natural disasters
Full of deadly diseases

Full of religious tribalism
Where the war of the gods
Take center stage in politics
Where criminals are heads of state

I cannot pretend all this
Is part of a divine plan
It is, it has been, and always was
The imagination of man

Someday
My neurons
Will cease to fire
I will have a final hour

It could be decades from now
It could be as soon as tomorrow
I will have the same sensations
After my passing, as I did

A thousand years ago
Don’t claim that you know
Who is running this show
Wrapped up in a pretty bow.
(end)

As the myth goes, the Jesus character was crucified with two criminals named Dimas and Gestas.