Life as it is

"Why are you poets so fascinated with man? (Answer) We have "not" in common. You both turn your backs on life. ( Ans. )We both "select" on life. A man has to come to terms with life as it is. (Ans.) Life as it is? I've lived over forty years and I've seen life as it is - pain, misery, cruelty. Under all the voices of god's noblest creatures. Moans form bundles of filth from the streets, of soldiers and of slaves. I've seen my comrades fall in battle or die more slowly under the lash in Africa. I've held them at the last moment. These are men who saw life as it is. But they die - disappearing, no glory, no bray of last words. Only their eyes filled with confusion. Questing why? I do not think they were asking why they were dying but why they had ever lived? Life itself seems so lunatic. Who knows where madness lies. Perhaps it is to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams. This may be madness? To seek treasure where there is only trash. Too much sanity may be madness? But maddest of all is to see life as it is, and not as it should be." Man of LaMoncha