13 minutes to midnight

 

 

 

 

 

seems like many of us are doing

this government thing wrong --

expecting it to save us or betray

us instead of using it as a part of

our overall social structure to

implement our shared values,

provide for our overall needs,

be us

 

 

 

it seems like a great many voters

consider voting their only civic duty

and don't really know much about

how their government works

(or doesn't work)

 

 

 

We decry our plunge

toward isolation

but really

we don't like other people

We understand the need

to have them in our lives,

but would so much rather

not have to deal with all

that arrogance, judgment,

strife

 

 

 

Like the drugs, the

hunger for money, the

hunger for what little is

left to prize, to distract

from the panic.

Our world, our nations,

our lives are falling away,

fire and floods and pandemics

and famine, seas occluded

with plastic waste, air, soil

and blood infected with

poison, decay.  No, we can't

take in, believe, react with

sane activity, policies,

adaptation.  Why bother,

we say, we scream, when

what we want can't matter,

nothing left to matter but,

the drugs, the wealth, the

competition, to override our

very real existential fear.

 

 

 

We are so controlled by

what we can't control

not because it matters to

who we are, but because

it matters to others'

mythology.

 

 

 

I say it and say it

and nobody cares

because everyone says it

and nobody cares

because we all know it

and nobody cares

because we can't hold it,

so overwhelmed

beyond caring

beyond breath

 

 

 

My life has been my work

other parts have been

subordinate, fodder for that work

The sum of who I am I splash

on real and digital pages

to give to any you who will

take me on.

 

 

 

9/3-8/23