This Petty Shame

You feel a twinge of pain here and there. You swallow a couple of pills, keep going.
You have bad dreams. How’s the nervous system, old man?
Hey, better drink a brandy, some wine.
Your heart is pensive, you dose yourself with brandy, wine, it’s all right.
Someone curses you, you put up with the envy,
of course the world’s always been critical. You’ll go along with the world, it’s all right!
Snickering loudly, some jackass insults you with
a barbaric gesture, mocks you,
well, the world’s still impure. You forget it, it’s all right.
Someone or another may trip you,
people play jokes at times, life’s not just
for sorrow and disgust. It’s all right.
I myself have seen a guy--
what a specimen! he’d eaten both his cow and her fetus.
Awfully ashamed, I told him,
“Hey, old man, what’s eating your mind, are you losing it?
Hey, better drink some wine, better swallow a couple of pills,
better gulp down some commonsense, it’s all right.”
But someone comes and shoves his paw in your teeth,
stomps on your liver and doesn’t even say, oh,
sorry, excuse me. This time, hell, no way it’s all right!