HUMAN
Words, music & audio recording
© John R. Brusseau February 24, 2010
Human
The scene plays out
inside the cavernous industrial space
nine levels deep
insecurity yawning beneath a blast door
One thousand seven hundred and eighty-two
angry red, and unwavering blue, uniformed personnel
hovering over the smooth barrel
of the polished steel launching vehicle
Hovering like too many ants on a fallen piece of candy
each treading upon the soul of two others
until the ordnance is incrementally passed to the loading chamber
colloquially known as the congress
And the martial spirit flows
like beer through an alcoholic
individualism carefully withdrawn from every last soul’s demeanor
YES SIR sounds as regularly as
pistons in an engine
This is civilization
the machination of fear
and it is all we know
Time’s passing has only institutionalized
our response to the presence of our enemy
our response, a cancer metastasized within our
failing system of human society
Yet every day’s shuddering demise
reloads the terrifying pictures of our foe
an endless loop of images drawn from sorrow and shame
and the fear of smoking wicks and bruised reeds
the mocking face of death
And so we loyally return every morning
to another day’s fevered labor
at the Peenemünde of our collective human soul
hoping this day will be our last
that our super weapon will succeed
And it never is
And it never does
The tempo quickens
and the tension tightens
in the breast of every citizen
The enemy is at our borders
The time for action has arrived
The ordnance prepared
and every expectant eye is focused on the shaft
of our remaining virtue
In the silence of the moment
silent in spite of the nagging loudspeaker droning in the distance
we watch with a gasp as the restraints are blown aside
liberating the thrust of our last hope for survival
And now the noise is overwhelming every thought
as the power of the rocket rattles every manmade thing in proximity
Now we will see the end of greed
Now we will know the resolution of injustice
The heart of every soul is racing in anticipation
of the demise of bigotry
and the death of fear’s chaos and destruction
Lift OFF!
WE HAVE LIFT OFF!
Everyone is dancing, and laughing the laugh of relief, and nervous hope
Silence swallows up our pallid joy
The cacophony collapses into the realization that something’s wrong
The rocket has not quite cleared the silo doors
and is now slipping back down into the open womb
of our self-righteous dream
In the split second before impact we all understand
There is no god but God
