Middling May

Walking down the street in middling May
As twilight faded into darkling day
I had a vision of a coming time;
Of houses all reduced to dust and lime
Of cities lost beneath a coastal flood
And bitter armies wading through bad blood.

If all this one day should come to pass,
If human kind were mown down like grass,
If all the civil world should be destroyed
I doubt if any gods will feel annoyed
Or once regret an earth so much diminished -
Divine experiments are quickly finished.