I wake up to view the morn’
The sun shines and the crisp air
Makes the hair on my neck stand-to
It’s too early to feel this depleted
Much to do and little time
But how, when time
Here is all that we have?
The quandary makes me numb
I walk these streets
In filth and famine and see
The losses and gains that
I measure block by block
I strain to see what lies beneath
In that odd pile of dirt
I am both right and wrong
It’s something, but nothing – this time
I extend my arm and open my vein freely
Lifeblood pours into its mouth
Clutching belly, the beast stirs displeased
It asks for more
I return, another days useless energy spent
And struggle to meet needs and demands
But between commitments and deadlines
I find time to open the newspaper
Words of trouble trouble me
Stories of destitution and crimes
Shootings in schools, town halls, campuses
Is it really not here, but there?
I am on the front line of Democracy
And while I toil to maintain the control
We fail to take control of ourselves
All an eggshell’s shadow, haunting me
For I am a Legionnaire on the frontier
Guarding my post dutifully
I sit on Hadrian’s Wall
While Rome rots from the inside