Gone Dark

The city wide, sprinkled in lights before they all go dim.
Heights of pride, I’ll bathe it in, and in its memory, swim.
Some place near, an insidious power threatens my celebration,
Deepening fear, some horrific hour floods all with devastation.


A person weighs, making his bid’ll define the bed on which he lies.
Required maze, bureaucrats' diddle control decisions of our lives.
Collective sways, standing for little, distinguish not goal from gun,
Halcyon days, content to fiddle; extinguish lights one by one.


An identification, not oversimplification: We’ve been led into this void.
Unprincipled Mess gaming Founder’s Best—purposefully destroyed.
We explain, we appeal, we implore, and yet our fight still turns
On protecting Rights, or building anew where some such Light still burns.


When does it end, this sacrifice of men in the name of those unknown?
Forbidden fruits of ken rot on the stem while surrender is over sown.
For the common good is the hue and cry for gleaning the unearned.
Freedom to act, our stores once set by, its meaning now unlearned.


We are they for whom this last great hope must be saved.
We are they by whom this battle of Reason must be braved,
To keep at bay, this creeping decay, this abysmal wave’s mad surge.
As Dark falls, Civilization calls, sounding not like magnificat, but dirge.

Picture 1, from Ink48 rooftop bar, NYC; Picture 2, Detroit in Ruins, Time magazine.