Thursday, July 10, 2008

Elegy for a Democracy Dying Young

We saw your triumph
Through the lens of time
O'er tyranny vile
(Damn! Don't that rhyme?)

Still, rhyme or no
We all believed
That We the People
Would succeed

Succeed in what
The Founders glimpsed
A view of Liberty
Now eclipsed
By lawless tyrants
Called Presidents
And Senators
And sycophants...

Is there in truth
No electability?
Are We the People
Mired in senility?
Young as we are
Yet old as dirt
Our minds are blank
Obtuse, inert

Think! People
Dammit
Think!
Our ship can't rise
If we all sink
Sink
To torture
To tyranny
To everything
In every way
That God and Angels
Will sweep away

Is there in truth no electability?
Is there, here and now, no sensibility?
Have we hung our noses
Over Nothing's abyss
And lied to ourselves,
"No - nothing's amiss!"

As we fall
We reach balance speed
Where gravity - we feel
Cannot succeed
Illusions are powerful
But more powerful still
Is the sudden stop...