Bringing Down the Wall / Hole in the Flag

Bringing Down the Wall/ Hole in the Flag

I.                    Bringing Down the Wall

The one

Moment

Cynosure

Pickax

It was inevitable

The tide of time couldn’t stop

The sea of people surged

Dirty taxicab

Smokers in trenchcoats

Sprayed haircuts and Hope, capital H, a heartbroken history

As a girl I pressed its grey texture in my hands, used to feel every bump and crag in it, that magickal concrete

Knew, but knew not knowing, through the veil of time and space

I held

Just a rock

And also the entire world.


II.                 Hole in the Flag*

It was a representation of power void
“It’s all too complicated for you to understand.”
At that age there could be good guys and bad guys.
It was what The People were searching for
Eyes in front, eyes in back
A survivor’s hypervigilance.
Soft sleep now
“The problems of our forebears are not ours;
We are free.”

So we put our hands through
Found mirror-us on the other side
Same shit, different shovel
The absolute corruption of power
“Which team do you play for?”

All the while, the hole got bigger.
Some spat out unremembered cautions
I’ve seen this movie before
And tried to change its ending.

In the dark of night
Only your heartbeat and the sense of being followed are real.
In the tunnel of niche-marketed illusions
We lost our humanity.

All the while, the hole got bigger.
Is hope visible through it?
Ask the naked question.

November 2018
*See A. Codrescu