Remember Us As We Were

I sense the end

Blowing through the streets

Like heady breezes making the windbells chime.

I want to believe

In a dream of permanence

Of freedoms impervious and inalienable.

I sit bedside

Of a dying democracy

Crumbling inside from its cancer.

I do not cry

Because this encroaching darkness

Provokes more than petty tears.

I feel doomed

Destined to become a cog

In a monstrous machine of tyranny.

I am at sea

Floating atop a fathomless black ocean

Not knowing when I'll be dragged down.

I am not fit

I won't stand a chance

If running becomes the only option.

I fight with words

Words not even seen

Words I type and scream into a void.

I don't want to be a martyr

Dying for a cause

I shouldn't have to fight for.

I exist within a whim

Of a cosmic happenstance

No predetermined destiny to name.

They invoke the name of gods

To fuel their incoming crusades

No longer hiding behind benevolence.

They've already tried

To pave their way with the blood

Of enemies they declared evil.

They're not happy with a pound

They want many tons of flesh

At the expense of innocent souls.

They no longer care

Allowing our children to die

All for their so-called righteous deliverance.

So, remember us as we were

When the gunfire rends the air

When the corpses fill the streets.

Remember us as we were

At the pinnacle of the takeover

When the last symbols of democracy fall.

Remember us as we were

When the stars and stripes become crosses

And freedoms are rarer than diamonds.

Remember us as we were

Only ever wanting peace

Only ever wishing love could win.