EGOCENTRIC

BY STEVIE SMITH Page 254 “Another Almanac of WORDS at PLAY

I first read this poem 9-16-86

What care I if good God be,

If he be not good to me,

If he will not hear my cry

Nor heed my melancholy midnight sigh?

What care I if he created Lamb

And golden Lion, and mud-delighting Clam,

And Tiger stepping out on padded toe,

And the fecund earth the Blindworms know.

He made the Sun, the Moon and every Star,

He made the infant Owl and the Baboon, 

He made the ruby-orbed Pelican,

He made all silent inhumanity,

Nescient and quiescent to his will,

Unquickened by the questing conscious flame

That is my glory and my bitter bane.

What care I if good God be

If he be not good to me?