The seams of this plastic earth

will melt apart like cotton candy sugar

under a wax sun

when it’s time for the Big Shift

to take the old guard

under the parting sea to meet

the wrecked remains of Atlantis.

Version 2.0 hasn’t been a big hit

up here in the Kingdom

of a lackluster Empire

where rabid dogs bark orders

to mutts that march in lockstep

with the drumbeat of war

despite hazardous health conditions

and a lack of benefits

in the retirement package.

Compassion is a curse word

in the red zone,

and empathy is a silent scream –

raging loud but signifying nothing –

when apathy plays the role of just one more

trigger warning for the eternally brokenhearted

who weep like their own personal martyrs

upon any cross they happen to find

out in the blistering blitzkrieg desert heat

where they hop aboard and hang

until…