The Nightmare Of Man Poem by Elizabeth Padillo Olesen

Man works throughout life
from childhood to adulthood.
He builds his place in heaven
sitting leap years in classrooms
harvesting diplomas for his career,
saying the best words of himself
as investment for job applications.

He daily climbs up the ladder as goal
He is obsessed of success and ambition.
From a house to land, bank savings
or loans, he continues to strive on.
But at a wink of an eye, all that he
has struggled for, all that he collects
to own, are lost and gone irrepairable.

For sure enough, the flames of fire
eat up all what he has acquired
within his years and decades in life.
Typhoon, tsunami, flood and cyclone
drown all what he has long labored.
Earthquake, disease and transient thieves
swallow up even his last bank loan.