Joseph Nicks

The Fall

way back in 2020

that didn’t mean what

it had meant in previous years

it had less to do with equinox

than equality, or more properly 

equitability – a sustainable

condition in which everyone

reaped equally the selflessness

they’d sown

but first we’d have to outgrow the smoke 

of chaos swirling thick and toxic 

from the tyranny of tear gas

to the terrorism and torching 

of vandals and looters hiding 

behind the mask of righteous rebellion

in a world gone viral, volatile and vengeful

we’d have to see the error of our ways

and means and meanness most of all

we’d have to see that there’s no difference

between oppressive laws

and lawless oppressors

we’d have to see that anarchy is bullshit

unless every single one of us is self-governed

by both reason and ethics

and that has never happened yet – 

we shouldn’t expect it ever will

(realism needs to temper our idealism)

we’d have to see that at least half

the information sailing down

that “information superhighway”

is second-hand at best

to downright groundless,

even connivingly contrived

we’d have to eschew all elitism 

and entitlement, preclude all 

prima donna privilege,

demote all alpha individuals

to omega status for a change

we’d have to realize 

that the line to be drawn

between ally and enemy

of the people can’t be delineated

by gerrymandering genetics

gender or generation – 

that until everyone joins

the ranks of the haves

the have nots will always exist

(the new haves will now just have to learn to share) 

we’d have to learn 

that if we’re to trust anyone else – 

and I don’t see how we’ll avoid that, 

scientists armed with authentic objectivity

and the accumulated observations we call data

are a much better choice than anyone

who’d assert that it’s money, politics

or faith that will save us

(none of those have worked once in these thousands of years)

we’d have to come to admit to ourselves 

that peace officers and unionizers 

are as essential as physicians and firefighters, 

whose ranks need to be fortified – not forgone

but in The Fall of 2020

that was all some ways away – 

pandemic and pandemonium still reigned

everyone had their eyes on the third

of November and the prospect 

of an eventual vaccine 

and Nero tweeted while Rome burned . . .

If Only For A Moment

in the dying of a tyrant

the implosion of an empire

built of broken bones

and bartered blood,

the bated breath of billions

who aren’t allowed 

to breathe the air

that billionaires 

are bottling up for market

in the virulence and violence

of have nots at war with have nots

set against each other

by those smiling other haves

in the inequity of ethics

foisted by our forefathers

upon us – 

so many in imagined entitlement

to something they’ve not earned

so many others claiming exemption

for themselves because of atrocities

suffered by someone else

they never even knew

on the fourth day of November

in 2020’s hind sight

we could rub our red-glared eyes

by the dawn’s early light

and know another nightmare

was coming to an end

oh, if only for a moment...