There is no refuge
No escape from being seen
No way around being found out
For we have no choice in life but to act
And even our inaction is itself our choice
And while we might rather that the truth of us
Should stay hidden from common view
Our actions reveal just who we are
And how we reckon the world
And what we do believe
To everyone who
Happens to
See.
And having been exposed
Some will think the only hope
Of survival in the open is that those
Who have seen us in action might take
A favorable view of the whole of it
Whether it be in truth or error
Or by sentiment or bribe
Or perhaps that they
Simply will not
Care to care
About us
At all.
But let us turn
Our careful attention
To the man who supposing
That he has satisfactorily navigated
The public view more or less discovers
At long last that his life has been played out
Unwittingly on the uncertain stage of this Earth
Before the all-seeing audience of Heaven
Who not only saw it all but had been
Paying attention to see its ending
And who themselves will say
What will happen next
And from whose
Apt decree
There is
Again
No
Refuge.
All the world’s the stage
And all the heaven’s the house
And everything is seen.
And there is no
Refuge.
