Defiance

Digital art by Walter W. Smith

Defiance

1.

History lies like a cornucopia of illusions,
slipping away with each new awakening.

Libraries are laden with vast dusty volumes
that chronicle Man’s past, dry feisty words,

the virtual becoming cyber-ciphering
now merging into countless terabytes,

from holocausts to revolutions,
from pogroms to parades, splitting the atom,

christian crusaders constantly resurfacing
to challenge Islam--never able to clearly

determine who are, and who are not the Infidels;
God switching sides like a polished politician--

Dick Tracy technology piggybacking on
Jules Verne visionary science, dictators

being dragged from hiding and then torn to pieces
in the street by mad dog protestors, done in front

of CNN and the world’s media eyes, as many
watch on their 3” phone screens, and e-notebooks.

2.

Each of us struggles to remember our personal
connection to history, all those delicious decades

lived through since 1945;
our 50’s automobiles,
our 60’s highs and rock & roll,
our 70’s sparkling disco balls,

fearing the New Millennium, then sliding past
it like quicksilver within thermometers,

rushing to produce a new decade, piled upon
the turn the century, rife with retribution,

wars holding hands, connected everywhere,
inflated corporate greed, the middle class shrinking,
sliding underwater, engineers working as mall security,
unemployment becoming a never-ending nightmare.

3.

Yet it is said that “with every breath a new dream is born”,
with every sunrise hope bubbles up from despair,

with every moment of happiness, every stroke of luck,
we checkmate the dark tragedies that seem

to surround us like a pack of ravenous grey wolves,
moving en-masse toward our tiny fires, and

some of us stand strong, holding our burning clubs,
cursing those red eyes, daring them to attack.


Glenn Buttkus

March 2012

Listed as #11 over at dVerse Poets-Poetics

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