was going to be so zany--
pointless lives magnified and celebrated--
deaths from self-destruction or gangsters you've crossed--
flood earthquakes volcanoes
the whole list of apocalyptic stand-bys
to be clamored upon by lunatics
or ignored by right-thinking people who believe
nothing but the safety of their own bubble--
I will now take a bow and say I saw it coming
a generation ago--only to be dismissed as yet another
crank even though the calamities are unfolding around us
and we sit back at our sidewalk cafes and observe
the daily circus--each of us smug and superior to prophecy--
I imagined myself on a mountaintop watching the waves
roll in a thousand feet high at a thousand miles an hour--
even allowed myself the notion of watching my life's enemies
floating by--oh well--shut MY mouth--here I am
at ground level with all I despise and who despise me--
one of many going down for the count in this time--
the lesson finally sinking in as I regard the scurrying crowds
I sit in my window and look at the late afternoon sun
set the building facades aglow in leaning Western sunlight--
ready to call it a death--and equally
ready to call for darkness or new life or whatever's next...
Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.
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