Now

If not, when?

Now we cast an idle gaze, more stunned than sorry
at the broken rubble and charred remains
of memorials to our heroes, moments of bravery
we dared once celebrate, ravaged by an ignoble god 
of grievances, hatreds, great and petty jealousies, 
exhorting his scrofulous legions to arise, rotten and foul  

Now their masked cowards sweep down in darkness
a flood of indifferent cruelties, a crushing scum slide
of murderous intent. We are not safe in our homes 
prey to the vagaries of despots intoxicated by rage
while fields lie fallow and forgotten, livestock untended
waiting shepherds huddling together in fetid wire cells
waiting for the planes; cattle cars to a modern holocaust

Now nothing is unthinkable, the vermin spill forth
wallowing in their ornate splendor, a veneer of gilt
and mirrors to hide their vile carnality, incestuous
and desperate, lusting for innocents, cold to the touch
while our champions preen, feckless, paralyzed 
by the threats, pointless compromises, empty promises,  
waiting, in wistful contemplation of what might be

Now is a long life’s moment to take up the sword,
to heft the heavy weight of our own mortality at last
to put courage to the test — will we weep and beg, 
conceding soulless devotion to a cursed empire, 
or will we fight as courageous soldiers have ever done, 
in defense of one another, for the honor to die free?