After another week of mass shootings
bereft in grief and lamentations

This much I know is true dear Beloveds
collectively we are failing one another

As we watch the Empire’s* quickening march
its’ white nationalism, racism, terrorism

White nationalism, the ideological power
of ageless greed of white, land owning men 

White racism, the socially constructed
web of lies meant to control the ‘unworthy others’ 

And the terrorism of the alienated who in their
fear lash out in their violence of losing control

We sit stunned as mass shootings play out
across our screens every night, helpless

Scapegoating those others as being the problem
thus escaping any personal guilt or responsibility

Succumbing to the belief that everything
must be solved by the hubris of politicians

Dear Beloveds, nothing will change until
each of us look deep within our own inner darkness

Opening to transformation of our hearts and minds
to the lies of Empires’ nationalism, racism, terrorism

We are living the lies of a nightmare of our making
and we each must wake up and die to its’ lies 

Doing the hard work of dismantling Empire
through action, reconciliation, and reparations

That which we are up against, the dragon’s heart
of darkness, the monolith of death, ourselves

Will require revoluntionary courage from our most
deeply, truest Self together in authentic community 

The lies of the ages and its’ culture of death
must now be replaced  with truth of Eternal Life together

Herb Stone, here&now working poetry, August, 2019

* I use the word ‘Empire’ to signify the historical
political construct of imperial sovereignty, rule,
and dominion which are based in maintaining power
and control at all costs for those deemed worthy thus
always resorting eventually to violence of the ‘unworthy other’.
Such Empires are timeless in their existence from the earliest
Akkadian Empire, through the Roman Empires,
to more recent Empires including the fascist state of
Nazism, up to the present day populist fascist regimes flourishing
and particularly the current fascist regime of the president
of the U.S. (Trump), which threatens to end our nation’s embryonic
democracy which faces so many unanswered challenges.