Monday, April 9, 2012

30 Poems in 30 Days - #9 Bainbridge on Calvary Hill

In hindsight we were mad to ever think we could control it
We stood so proudly behind flimsy safety nets of semi-scientific arrogance
Never realizing our heads were already in the lion's mouth
even when its saliva fell from the sky

Strong minds unburdened by such restraints as subtlety
Under the corporate dollar, we cast modesty and caution to the winds of fate
Seeing the face of Christ each time we passed by a mirror
and the heir of Lazarus in each of our stolen corpses

FLASH

Five years and we're living in a filmscape highlighted by
greyed out borders between nationless stretches of land
Our precious things have been turned on their heads
The money we did it for now worth less than the paper it's printed on
throats are being slashed for mouthfuls of water
and we're all wishing to God that we could turn those diamonds back into coal

The safety was never there, but the illusion's gone now too
and safety has just become another word for death
Humanity's greatest regret - not replacing "could we" with "should we"

FLASH

To the moment they find us
The moment they remember the pride in our faces as we smiled and waved for the cameras
The moment we realize why celebrities wear sunglasses in public - so as not to be recognized
When they crowd us and damn us, beat us and call for our blood

These people have turned weapons on their own children
Some to save them the pain, some to save themselves
These people see us as the bringers of their downfall
As though we had "Enola Gay" tattooed on our foreheads

FLASH

To the moment the first one goes violent
To the moment the bites fester and kill in moments
To the moment our act of God is taken from us, and spread through infection
Now we are all sons of bitches.

FLASH

To the laboratory where we crowned our apostles
The room destined to be our Golgotha
As man shows the monster within, the rage and pain of a life unjustly destroyed
Howling, and weeping, and clawing justice from our flesh
And we cannot protest
For we are delivered to safety at last.

2 comments:

  1. The sunglasses comment is kind of interesting. Would celebrities disguise themselves at the sudden fall of civilization? i guess their social capital would be useless in an apocalypse, but at the same time, people might blame them for the shitstorm. I wonder also how long sunglasses would disguise the infected.

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  2. The comment was more intended to be the realization of the protagonists that they had achieved a level of celebrity before the fall, and they hadn't been masking their faces since then. Considering the collapse could be solely blamed on them, they realized too late that they could be recognized, and subsequently harmed.

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