Paradox of Life

Look into a mirror and
stare for yourself
the illimitable battle of right and wrong;
of epigrams and law;
of will and thought.

For here lies the obstacles of life;
of forgetting those which you long remember,
of adoring whom you abhor,
of being quiet when
you have to speak,
of learning what you weaken to understand,
and how to stay vigorous when you have grown old.

For here lies the difference
in suffering the burdens of others,
in being sorrowful when all are happy,
in crying when you do not have tears,
and smiling when you have no consolation
for your sorrows.

Then, somehow if this world could extend over
all my shortcomings and if people would
share this pains; this battle would
have never existed in me.

For I have to see,
what I should recall that I may forget,
whom I hate, so that I might learn to adore them,
what I should express, that I wouldn't be speechless,
and what I should imbibe, that I may comprehend.

So that one day,
I will be delighted when all are delighted,
and fill this cosmos
with love
and not agonies
mistaken for roses.