Landscape

Landscape 9/17/2014

 

A picture can make you cry

And a memory can double you over

Worse than a gunshot

And much harder to heal. 

Life is hard

And many are those

Who have followed the call of death

Off the top of buildings

Or hung from a cord.

The fix is in

And deep down

You can feel it

In the hopelessness of trying

When all of it

Is wasted.

Now as I type

Zombies stumble

Bleeding through their eyelids

In a fevered horror

Sickening and real. 

The good are shouted down

But the more they give in

The more that we lose

All because they fear losing

What none of us

Can ever keep. 

Who will it be

That can stand the abuse

Without the safety of acceptance

Or the bribe of livelihood.

Every day

The onslaught continues

As the ignorance mounts

In the midst of the mob.   

Everything infected

And everyone corrupted

All because

They have something to lose. 

But what I loved

I could not keep

No matter how tight we cling

All is dust

And snapshots in our mind. 

The music drones on

Useless, dumb and violent

While the dogs run

Snarling at mirrors

And chewing their tail. 

Every institution

And every ideal 

All collapse into ruins

Under the heavy hand
of politics and compromise. 

The debris is everywhere

And we run through it every day

A broken field to walk

Or better yet to run. 

The story is falling apart

Because it was never true at all

And it should leave us all thinking

About all that we believed. 

Look inside yourself

And stare at the truth

Because many will abandon the truth

For just a few dollars more. 

The picture is painted

But that is all it is

Created like a straw man

To burn in a barrel. 

Let them

Who have courage

Look a little deeper

Now more than ever

Awake and alert.

The truth is uncovered

And soon we will see

The day that all must awake

Or sleep in darkness forever.