Life's Paradoxical Paradise

Born in joy, bathed in love as a boy, I now emerge from the womb,

“Wake up! Look alive! You're a baby no more!”

From the untested chartered waters do I eventually go to the tested and uncharted,

And I have no idea about the process I've started.

But first...

Straight from the womb to a cocoon do I survive,

Never paying attention to my surroundings,

Only a false imagination and ideas can I connive,

Seeking through blissful ignorance that paradoxical paradise.

In the cocoon do I spend a great eternity...

Feeling no pain, no sadness, no enmity.

In the world I'm immersed in, I find shelter in my dreams,

Looking forward to moving to life's paradoxical paradise, or so it seems.

Eventually I emerge with new skin, ready for the paradise I dreamt about,

Only then do I find a ruined wasteland of potential.

Billions of souls unheard despite how much they shout,

Billions of bodies and minds broken, their health appearingly inconsequential.

In life's paradoxical paradise did I once take comfort in,

In life's paradoxical paradise can I now not escape, no matter the effort in.

In life's paradoxical paradise did I dream of as I slept,

And now only the future can show in life's paradoxical paradise how I wept.

In life's paradoxical paradise did I once imagine to be taken seriously,

But now I join the billions of souls that are simply swept.

I once viewed life's paradoxical paradise so mysteriously,

But now I see the actuality, beyond my nightmares,

I see a surreal dark view, a view of a clear reality,

Life's paradoxical paradise is sustenance that is killing us.