When the most capable
believe they have risen above
the mucus, the shit, the afterbirth
of their origin
when in their reflection
they see perverse transcendence
towards entitlement
in which no allegiance
or kinship of nature
binds them to their center
nor founds them in the
fevered fumbling fury
of the frightened flesh parade
in which they lock step
flailing for survival
when their insanity of arrogance
so distorts their vision of time
of the ancient
of the sweating
bone-broken reality
of human swill and wallow
through which they likewise trudge
shiny shoes or no
when they blatantly begin
to eat their own
while copulating with false gods
on forsaken gilded altars
of perjured horrors
then the hour of the beasts
is certainly at hand
and the power of wild nature
will rise up to dominate
and we’ll all become
the hulking mass
of the apocalypse
deserving to be struck down
and our black hearts
torn out and severed
by the self-inflicted rapier
of raw wild justice
and our husks immolated
on the pyre of banished
abandoned truth
that moment is near
rob kistner © 2022
Poetry at: eartweal
This piece is so dark, I needed night
lenses to read it. Scary as hell too.
Paints quite a bleak image of the
shit we are mired in, and for me,
we are the beast.
This is one of the demons that haunt my dreams, and my cold grey waking depressions — that we humans are, in fact, as heartless and twisted as these times in which we live, might affirm… that those who struggle to be good and positive, are fighting our true natures, and are doomed to fail…? With every fiber of my being, I do not want to believe that, but look at the world just beneath the glaze of current technology — it is not, with regard to our human presence and conduct, not a beautiful place. The natural part of our world, the beautiful balanced part, we humans are destroying, as we destroy ourselves… hard to remain optimistic in this light Glenn…
Cynical and scary. Well done.
Frightening because there is so much truth to it.
this is soooooooo good Rob…excellent..and well written….and I do not find this scarry…having fought some depression over the years….I have learned to just “let go”…and the truth always appears….happy trails my friend….now it is March Madness.. and that is REAL SCARRY
Thank you for the kind words Wayne… 😉 …and yes, the madness of March is indeed scary — watched my beloved Ducks fall tonight…
A great piece of writing and one that has echoes for me of Yeat’s ( Intentional perhaps?) ‘Second Coming.’
As for the sense of this, the doom ladened load, i think that it is what it is. We are no doubt standing on the deck of a sinking ship but in the context of that metaphor, tis only a ship. The sea will remain. Good to read you this fine morning.
Thank you Paul. Humans in our arrogance and disregard have gotten so out of balance with nature, that when nature reaches forth to reestablish that sacred balance — the human species will pay steeply!
You have nailed it. Sadly, looking at any newscast, it does feel like we are “fiddling while Rome burns”, and on the brink of an apocalypse we cant begin to imagine. A powerful poem, Rob, and discouragingly accurate. The human experiment has failed. It could have been so different.
I do not, in my heart, want to feel this way Sherry. When I hug my grandson, it hurts deeply to feel this way. When my son tells me don’t worry, things will get better, I don’t want to feel this way. But I am in my 76th trip around the seasons, and the direction I have watched things move, does not encourage me. I see technology “advancing” in hopefully positive ways, but I also see tech moving at a speed we cannot control. And I see human interaction with, and regard for the natural world turning to abusive destructive disregard — the same for the regard for human yo human interaction. In many ways I see effort towards something positive — but I see this specter we have created outdistancing our positive efforts — and, it is a lethal genie of greed, pollution, and arrogance that we can’t get back into the bottle. The specter is coming for us, and like you say, we are fiddling in denial, as it approaches. I so hope, for the sake of my grandson, that I am completely wrong — but try as I might, I do not see the light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe I have lost my pollyanna glasses? But I am old, perhaps my sight is poorly skewed… fingers crossed! 🙂
That’s a powerful poem highlighting the situation we now face. We humans have despoiled our home and now must face the consequences.
Yes Suzanne, unfortunately.
Strong dark words here – really well written.
Thank you lindi… 🙂
Sounds like you have Republicans in your neck of the woods.
No,they all moved to northern Idaho.
Those hearts getting blacker by the day.
Sadly so Kerfe… 😐