eptx

unremitting

joyless

ugliness

invades every sense

eye

ear

nose

-touch, too, as skin cringes and retreats

and the "moral" sense too pays a price:

sympathy kicked by antipathy and stubborn certainties

produced by the misery of this place

the cold sun

the sharp sand

You can be oh so confident if you have a narrow vision of the world

blind to all beauty,

even fearing it,

and you can push aside any hint that there is something beyond

the borders of your shriveled imagination,

all the while smugly self-satisfied.....