Today's news seemed a bit more depressing than usual,
Fogging up my mind's third eye early on.
A warning flashes.
Suddenly I see a system slashed and bleeding out.

We are knee-deep in advertised complacency,
A world for sale,
Fortunes to be made,
Battles to be fought,
Combat and competition inseparable,
No reaction to rampant acts of desperation,
The good jobs going to the lowest bidder
Or a friend of a friend,
And don’t forget the two percent financing!

Make no mistake, most of us will run like rabbits
When the buckshot whizzes past our heads.
Others will stand pat, Medusa-stoned,
Flash frozen in the headlights.
They will be the unmoving targets.
And then there are those who stir the dust,
Stand ready to fight…

Have you picked your place to hide?
I'm not sure there is one.

I tiptoe to my window sill,
Cautiously gaze out to see the cool of Autumn
Has settled in the leaves of nearby trees.
And all down the street the oaken shadows skitter,
Shake the lazy squirrels awake.
The occasional hawk seen on fence frozen in statuary pose
Or circling high overhead.

A nearby school trickles assorted adults,
Escorting chattering children,
Moving to and fro on the root-tilted sidewalks below.

I can hear the not-so-distant intercom announcements,
The period bell, the lull between sessions…
Business as usual.
You would think they would know, if anyone would.


Once the local school was our command post,
The go to place for critical news:
Classes cancelled due to bad weather,
The deaths of Presidents, Election days,
And pretty much all other natural or man-made disasters
Heralded in the course of a school year.

You would think that on this day
The playground would be silent.
On this day,
The adjacent streets would be empty of cars
And eerily still.
On this day,
Warnings would scream from TV's and radios,
Notices would be plastered across the Internet,
Jets and armored troupe carriers
Would be plying the rich neighborhoods
And criss-crossing the ever-darkening skies;

Everyone to remain at home huddled in their kitchens,
Staring at their desktops or smart phones,
Waiting for further instructions.

But this is not the case.
Today, they say, is just another day,
As benign as any popular TV show or video game.

And the wars, the hatred, the bigotry,
The injustices that continue to occur,
Having been featured in yesterday's movies
Or on the nightly news three weeks before,
Become, somehow, easier to digest, or worse,
Will be totally ignored.

Thus, we are blind to the lessons of a more distant past,
Predisposed to reject valid historical facts,
A society in chaos persuaded to cling fast to the status quo,
And play on…

So let the games begin!


Michael S. True
9-26-14