An Elegy for Our Time

I mourn today. Today I grieve.

I mourn the darkening of a dream,

the fading of a grand human endeavor.

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I mourn the possibility of what could have been.

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I weep for the world my grandchildren will inherit,

that my children will have to navigate,

full of meanness and division, rife with

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smallness of mind, full of greed and bluster.

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What battles they will have to fight

to set things right! What struggles they will

endure when they speak Truth

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into the void of an imperfect Union, now fully broken!

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I mourn today. Today I grieve.

I mourn the faintest hope, flickering

like a dying candle in a Long Night,

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willing to give my last breath to keep it alive.

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This is nothing new, simply the ancient

repeating saga of empire’s rise and fall,

the chaos the fall begets as the shortsighted few

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gorge on the suffering of the many.

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The same old playbook of division and power,

demonizing an Other, reducing life to

commodities on a balance sheet,

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while this beautiful planet rots from the inside out.

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I mourn today. Today I grieve.

Empathy is cast as weakness,

kindness is a character flaw,

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and Christ’s words are recited but not lived.

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I know the choices before me. You do, too.

Suffer in silence, or raise your voice.

Mourn the losses, fight the small battles,

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and never, ever surrender to the hate around us.

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I mourn today. Today I grieve

the passing of a dying age,

but the dross is burning away

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to reveal the Truth of something better.

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And from that, I can find Hope.