Taut as twine pulled tightly,
too tightly
fraying fibers and inexhaustible
fear extending
As they group us and feed us
hype, tracked for hysteria
targeted for capitulation
The enemy is a shadow, an apparition,
the testimony of those who own
the air, the distraction of the masses,
We breathe shallowly, we wait in anxious
life-pauses
Information bytes catch us in nets
bumping against strangers who demand
participation in today’s performance
A national experience of social media
and conjoined causes
We become the herds; our confidence
muddied, by our failures
standardized tests of life
moneyed prancing
corporate princes
sports jocks and rappers
the receivers of
genetic gifts of line or intellect
The caste system division
of coin and soil
We tremble with continued
extrapolated history
nations falling under might and fury
The forewarnings and forecastings
of drowning men and
the Battle of Stalingrad
We cower in bedrooms under
the glow of a television
How to survive
How to endure
The tightly woven twine unravels
then taut again
twist and release
until
The cord of life
splits and is eradicated.
Wanderings and Reflections