The deep state of the world has me profoundly worried.
The deep, dark web of intrigue expands its tentacles
By the moment, returning us to pentacles
And elixirs and madmen; carnage unburied.
I have been afraid of the darkness all my life.
Not the grand abstract -- black holes that suck out all light --
But the hole in human hearts cut out with the knife
Of hunger and greed, sadism; the vast moral plight.
We're at a crossroads, and it's a long walk ahead
on the dirt lane Frost called the one less traveled by,
migrants, our heads down, into the land of the dead,
our future choices limited to lie or lie.
It feels like an ending, rather than a new start,
but I'm old, estranged, and live with a broken heart.