Now and Then


Now the clouds are pressing down

making everything grey,

everything misty. 

It’s impossible to discern which way

people are facing.

It looks like everyone

is facing both ways,

so it is impossible to know who to follow,

impossible to know which path to take,

which is the good and which is bad.


Then, in the old days

it was all so clear.

This was the way.

These were the good guys,

the brave guys with the guns,

sending out their scouts 

from the circled wagons

of peaceful pioneers

in search of a better life

in the vast empty land.

Protecting them from 

the bad guys,

the savages,

the cowardly braves

with the bows and arrows 

and scalping knives.


It didn’t always go to plan.

But the cavalry usually

arrived just in time.

And the good guys 

always won

in the end.


Didn’t they?


https://www.thepoetmagazine.org/spring-2020---war-and-battle




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