We Are Mere Shadows of the Things We Once Believed

John Martin's Illustrations for Paradise Lost

If you were to ask me

How are things since you’ve been gone,

I would answer, truthfully,

There is heat and dust and ignorance.

We have abandoned all our hopes

And now inhabit the castle of our fears.

We are mere shadows of the things

We once believed, hand over heart,

Pledging to an ideal

Rather than to people.

In the silence of the ominous night,

We hear the fire in the sky.

Bombs or bullets or flamethrowers

While on the blue glow of our screens

Observed through suburban windows

The talking heads tell us what to believe

And more importantly, who to trust.

Trust no one; better to sit in the dark

And watch the night unfold like summer jasmine

Hoping daylight will tell a different story.