the crisis that is predicted
is already here
we are the crisis

the triumph of totalitarianism
as in total war
as in total deception
total betrayal
is
and continues to be

the dead would speak out only
they are choked by death
the tortured
are tongueless and crippled
the rest of us
having been born into spiritual deformity
have Glostered our own eyes
and go stumbling on and on
blathering
into the peoples’ republic of amnesia
or over the precipice to oblivion

to talk in this way
is not pessimism
is not any “ism” at all
it is not playing the pose
of the hero either
or shouldering
the prophet’s weary cloak
it is only a matter of memory
of facing the mirror
and being horrified
in the naked moment of recognition

for the crisis to arrive
has arrived
and we are all
coded and crowded
inside the looking glass world
where being
flat and smashable and
watched
is as common as death