year zero in the terminal empire

 

blood machine moving down main street,

broken bones and mangled babies and

who the fuck screams with their throat torn out?

 

who the fuck stops to help the already-dead,

                                  the perpetually stoned,

                              the terminally unwanted?

 

we have never been a kingdom of saviors

 

we will never know a truth

unstained by ignorance

 

let the holy men burn in

their false sanctuaries

 

let the demagogues be fed to

the rusty whirling blades

 

you and i are what’s left once

the storm has blown over,

and we still need to bury the children

 

we still need to wash the feet of

the lepers and junkies

 

to screw the brothers and sisters of

100,000 anonymous suicides and it’s

not an act of kindness but aggression

 

a sound like metal on metal, like a

wrecking ball against a skull

 

music, you know?

 

explosions, or the slamming of doors

 

the sound of shots fired on

a nursery school playground

 

it happens, but then some asshole cocksucker

starts screaming that it never did, and

suddenly you know who the true enemy is

 

suddenly you see how their story will end