Decline and Fall
We place our trust in grifters, charlatans and fools.
Criminals infest our blighted cities.
Betrayal is not a potent enough word
To describe the unconscionable disgrace
Of raw corruption spiced with blatant lies.
But, we are not absolved nor innocent.
How did we arrive at such a place,
Anointing sociopaths to be our guides
And lethal guardians in these troubled times?
We allowed our institutions to decay;
Getting and spending became our twin obsessions;
We believed that wealth was something one could count;
That power was a permit for excess,
And consequences only for the weak.
Self-serving, in fraudulent disguise,
Leaves us with lives of ashes, dust, and death.
Education is a classist casualty.
Long trusted Institutions are in fact
Mendacious usurpations which conceal
Rapacious systems of iniquity
With murder as the social tool of choice.
Confronted with these monumental wrongs,
The need to act is urgent and extreme,
But paralyzing apathy and fear
Condemn us all to darkness and despair.