Another Morning After
by Odin odin@aflx.com — Read all 3,869 poems by Odin odin@aflx.com
11/5/14 – Once again, there will be another skirmish, another battle or two won, but Man’s war—our species' weakness—will surge on in perpetuity. Oh, how easy some find it to play the duplicitous card and forget the challenge to do the right thing with each other and give honesty some cred. (Image by Ropey)
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Another Morning After
by Odin Roark
Hate and love
Locked in mortal combat.
Crossing of swords continues
Amidst a tempest rising,
Where minds and hearts clash,
Ignoring their sentient bond.
Heavy storms of distorted agendas
Churn and roil,
Washington’s power-clash determined to erode
Any resistance.
Children of all ages look on,
Their eyes willed shut,
Their ears closed to the madness,
Their tenuous votes seeking repose.
Adults continue imitating their offspring,
Continue wanting,
Taking,
Acting as if right and wrong are unknown,
As if doing what they ought is somehow foreign.
Away
Far away
Further realms of conflict watch
Needing neither laughter nor contempt
To vibrate their appetites…
Only nodding at our own brand of tribal failure.
Ironically close,
Oh so very close,
The conscience of our simpler times
Peers through the shadows
Wondering why.
Evolution’s antennae pick up once again
Man’s delusional habit,
That yesterday’s experience can be forgotten so easily
As today’s greed and power overwhelm.
So much known.
So little learned.
I recall an interview I had with the owner of an environmental consulting firm the day after the Reagan/Carter referendum on Carter's failure in Iran. As we ate lunch, he was despondent because he knew that many of the projects that he was working on would be canceled. In his office, he showed me a picture of him in the back of the canoe with President Carter in the front. A scene I had seen on television. As a result, he could not offer me work.
At the same time, I interviewed with Lockheed Marietta in a quality control position. They asked me to help them achieve "zero defects," a concept that I despised because of its wasteful obsession with perfection. Other interviewees were ecstatic because Reagan had won and they had a large order of C-130 Hercules from the country of Iraq. I didn't take the job at Lockheed.
Ron