The Certitude of Dread
Beyond cold sweats of the past,
the health and lives of loved ones,
bomb shelter construction how-to’s on the radio in 1961,
savings depleted in market free-falls,
the cruelty of ISIS and its copy-cats,
the Doomsday clock at 23:58:30,
the confluence of geopolitical events
disinformation (Black is actually white, you didn’t know?)
lies (This is true because I say it is, and I say it often)
pandemic,
war (Europe, Africa, and the Middle East),
wolves circling prey ostensibly to rescue,
but only to use, disenfranchise, and impoverish,
and populism
individualism, the offspring of indifference,
ubiquitous media offering false equivalences,
willful ignorance,
voting against the universal good,
eagerness to blame and scapegoat,
chasms in courageous critical analysis,
manifests in my soul as a visceral oracle,
a leaden spirit
weighed down with
the certitude of a cup prepared for others to drink,
a fire started so others must walk through it,
a bed of nails on which others must lie,
the inevitability of calamitous upheaval accepted for others,
causing me to
grieve an inclusive and diverse country
on the brink of regression,
counter falsehood in my circles whatever the cost,
support efforts to move the body politic forward,
seize joy in the present moment,
sow connections at every opportunity, to
know
in my bones all the while
the inexorable drift toward neo-feudalism,
consumed with
the certitude of dread.
My response to a prompt on a fear one has felt, and shared with the Parkland Writers' Alliance June 19, 2024
No comments:
Post a Comment