first lesson about man

Man begins in zoology

He is the saddest animal

He drives a big red car

Called anxiety

He dreams at night

Of riding all the elevators

Lost in the halls

He never finds the right door

Man is the saddest animal

A flake-eater in the morning

A milk drinker

He fills his skin with coffee

And loses patience

With the rest of the species

He draws his sin on the wall

On all the ads in all the subways

He draws mustaches on all the women

Because he cannot find his joy

Except in zoology

Whenever he goes to the phone

To call joy

He gets the wrong number

Therefore he likes weapons

He knows all guns

By their right names

He droves a big black Cadillac

Called death

Now he is putting anxiety

Into space

He flies his worries

All around Venus

But it does him no good

In space where for a long time

There was only emptiness 

He drives a big white globe

Called death

Now dear children you have learned

The first lesson about man

Answer your test

"Man is the saddest animal

He begins in zoology

And gets lost

In his own bad news."

~ Thomas Merton

from The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton

art by Picasso