I woke

I sang

I saw us bow

Before the dark one

Wishing reality

Would end

​

The tariffs of principle

The unbowed joy of love

Were eviscerating us

​

We were a new kind

Of heathen sending trains

Of dead innocents back

To their waiting families

​

We had surrendered

Convinced that ‘free’

Was more than a word

​

We made our t-shirts,

Our cars, our bowls

And brushes into weapons

​

We fought to stay blind

​

We twisted the earth

Into a crowbar and jacked

The universe off our backs

​

We tried to celebrate

With extravagant diseases

A booming market and leisurely

Affairs but the harpoons of disgust

Made us weep

​

We started hoarding

And taught savagery

To the young

​

Never before had prosperity

Been so widespread

​

Yet in dry riverbeds

People fought

Over human flesh

​

I woke

I sang

I saw us bow down

Before the Dark One

​

He heard me, opened doors

For me, encouraged me to sing on

Knowing full well that the ways

Were lost 

And lost even were the words

That had named them