This should be confusing
Because we are not an island geographically
Like Australia or Greenland
But psychologically or psychically
We are profoundly separated from the rest of the world.
We are still connected to Mexico and Canada
By cultural, commercial and language bridges
(And by the power grid)
But those suspension bridges of connection
Are attenuating and snapping
As our nation shrinks ideologically,
Culturally, spiritually, psychically and politically,
Growing smaller and smaller and smaller.
The reason many of us
Don't notice we are shrinking
Is because we are shrinking as a whole
And at a constant rate
In perfect proportion
To the accelerating miniaturization
Of our interests, our obsessions
And our illusions of relevance.
(Please don't shoot the messenger, but)
It's entirely possible that, if we don't foment
A nuclear World War III,
That we will completely disappear
As a national entity
All because of the choices we made
In the first quarter of the 21st century
When we still had choices.
Very soon, we will be on our own
Surrounded by our own ocean,
Which is not shrinking but growing.
Not the Atlantic or the Pacific
But the Pancentric Ocean of American Exceptionalism
That will be rising on our coastlines
Much faster than
The rising seas of Climate Change.
