Virtuous
are the patient.
Venomous
is the serpent.
Deadly
are the silent.
Deliver us
from the arrogant.
What was this supposed to be?
Some kind of science
experiment?
What were your hypotheses?
Or, was the outcome
already determined?
And at
what cost?
I see the “Win” column
eating the “Lost”.
What did we gain?
I hear the fear
and the pain.
Did you put something
in our mouths
that made it so truth
cannot come out?
Did you do something
to our eyes
that made the truth
so hard to find?
Everything seems, now
to be turning on itself.
The family and the tribe,
broken and terrorized.
You played up our divides
and now we fear for our lives.
Can we stop this just in time,
or are we going
down
forever?
Did you do something
to our words,
that made it so
they can’t be heard?
Did you do something
to our hearts,
that made them cold
and granite hard?
Distrust has now replaced a smile.
A clenched fist has replaced a wave
and we all know what’s going down
if we continue on this way.
What have you done
to us?
We trusted you with our lives.
Now, we don’t know
if we’ll live through
the night.
We don’t know
if our neighbors
are sharpening their swords.
What kind of enemy
makes such a weapon
of their words?
Can we retreat
from the edge in time?
Or, are we all
going down
forever?
HG – 2021
