Tonic For Good Life

Do not surround yourself with successful people.

They will fill you with insatiable contempt.

They will tell you that the water is warm

And that the mind is infinite

They don’t speak of depths.

Beware of the people surrounded in chatter.

They seldom listen.

Doubt the happy faces, 

loath the productive spirits,

They cloth their escapism with pride and resilience.

Doubt beauty without hint of ugliness

And truth without falsification.

Doubt the absolute.

Doubt the good men.

Doubt life without the dread of dying.

Seek truth in the eyes of an alcoholic

And love in low lit rooms of brothels.

Sane men often hide their insanity

In well-meaning idioms.

Learn riches from a beggar,

And health from a dying man.

No tree touches the sky

Without its roots sunken in hell.