It's a Beautiful World

It's a beautiful world:
with vast, quiet libraries,
nubile sexy ladies from countless lands,
Thai resort towns of coconut bliss,
snakes that bite, rattle, and hiss,
endless robotic cities not to be missed,
murdered idealists left to rot in a ditch,

with Mexican poets
shining the shoes of the rich,
masterful actors minding their cues:
celebrating fictional love and blues,
rivers and peoples poisoned for gold
(an abundant metal of little use)

Yes, it's a beautiful world,
with Shakespeare, Sagan, and Voltaire,
warriors who terrible deaths dare,
brilliant women learned, powerful, and fair,

melting glaciers soon to cause despair,
the sweat-shops that make the clothes
that the church-goers wear,
diseases and cures that vanish one's hair,
and the music of Mozart and Wagner

It's a beautiful world
with nuclear energy and nuclear bombs,
con-men busy crafting new modern Gods,
lap-tops, droids, and I-pods,
with oceans full of tuna, cod, and squid
(though they don't fill the nets
quite like they did)

Yes, it's a beautiful world
and an ugly one, too :
suppose it all depends
on a person's point of view