I'm not inspired by earth's lovely things

the birds, the trees, the autumn breeze.

 

The purr of a cat, the smell of a cake,

aren't able to get me through the day.

 

A powerful speech, a heartfelt story,

do not help me rise to glory.

 

No, I'm not inspired by any of these,

at least, not as much as by other things.

 

It is bad people, you see, who inspire me.

 

The liars, the cheats,

the unfaithful, the thiefs.

 

The ruthless, not the benign,

bring a kind of motivation to my side.

 

One may wonder why,

so I will explain:

 

It is the ugliness of people

that reminds us we are the same.

 

We have lied, we have cheated

we have broken and we have stolen.

 

We may not have killed,

but we have murdered in our hearts.

 

No one is perfect, no one is blame free

from making the world what it is and will continue to be.

 

But wait!

In this evil world something shimmers!

 

Something we never thought of,

something we never deserved;

 

that miraculously we are loved in the midst of our dirt.

 

This is my inspiration.

This is my hope.

 

What gets me through the day

and what helps me to get along.

 

Because despite the fact we're horrible,

despite our countless inequities,

 

we are loved more than we could imagine,

and more than we could ever be able to repay.