Fifth Letter From Zeno Poem by Barry Middleton

Where are the gods of today?
Innocence was murdered in 1963.
God's death was headlined in 1966.
Justice and Equality fell in 1968.

Now the children recognize
gunfire in the school hall,
the bully prowls,
dope deals are concealed.

Never again will we know peace,
unlocked doors, freedom,
kids everywhere and safe.

Heads are bowed texting
like a prayer to technology
that connects and disengages.

A lifetime passes by with war
on war on war with nothing gained.
Still the soldiers die.

Each year that passes takes us
farther on a path from paradise,
the garden lost forever.

America seems possessed of greed
that never can be satisfied.
The economy of consumption
has gone viral in China and India.

The Eastern world is still exploding.
Doves lie slaughtered
in the killing fields.

Pirates roam the Arabian Sea
and tyranny reigns in Central Africa
and the Sahara.

What brave new world have we
created? The Alpha and Beta Parties
lord themselves over a ΓΔΕ fraternity
of wage slaves.

Huxley's nightmare has come true.
Solitude no longer has a value
and Soma rules the social scene.

Hatred and bigotry, that we
hoped to banish, have risen
to a state of virtue, and racists
deem themselves patriots.

All this as we poison air and water,
crack and frack the landscape,
and ignore the melting ice
and rising sea.

The possibility of nuclear holocaust
that seemed to grow remote
now looms again in the Middle East.

Optimists assure us all is well
as governments build more walls
and more bombers and demand
less and less dissent.

Pessimists seek the edge of the grid,
the bunker or the insane mountains.