There Are Some Folk Who Money Covet

There are some folk
          who money covet,
as heathens
          idols, long ago,
they cannot
          get sufficient of it,
but this will not be always so.
There are some folk
          who crave for power,
who know no curbs,
          nor ken its worth,
but soon will come their final hour,
and other times will come to earth.
There are some folk
          pursuing glory,
it seems
          that legion is their name,
their only hope,
          that in some story
their names
          for ever will remain.
It seems
          that power and adulation,
are really
          very much like brine:
You drink and drink
          without cessation,
and still you’re thirsty
          all the time.
Your own,
          your private
                    immortality
is not
          in station,
                    rank or birth:
your this, your that—
                    what triviality—
it’s in the future
                    of your earth!
And since
          the earth began its spinning,
since man
          upon his feet first stood,
we see at last,
                    the faint beginning
of universal
          brotherhood.
May every
          colour
                    be invited,
to share
          the world’s
                    abundant good,
to come together,
                    live united,
as decent human beings should.

NIKOLAI ASEYEV