on the brink -Nick Romero

Where are you?

I don’t mean absolutely, I don’t want an address or coordinates, I mean

Where are you?

Because your body is present, in the present.

You sit in the here and the now

while the Earth and everyone on it spin into oblivion.

I can tell your mind is elsewhere. Stranded

in some hazy, idealistic vision of the past - or

a cheery, bright version of the future.

Nostalgia, hope, cloud your mind like drugs.

But mother said never to do drugs, didn’t she? Return.

You have no choice but to retur, to peer back over your shoulder

at the world you are leaving behind.

Maybe death is a comforting threat for you. A pleasant escape.

Look out there. Look at the people, the buildings, the plants, the animals;

Death is slow. Life is a slow road to death.

Does the blood spilled by human means not disgust you?

Does the seizing of spirit from undeserving folk not bring you to tear?

How dare you think of running away when your job’s very foundations

are to serve the common good?

There will be time for you to rest, to saturate your mind

with saccharine scenes of peace, prosperity, and progress.

Now is not that time.

Do not lead from the comfort of the ivory tower,

do not send your living to fight a war they cannot win

without being there yourself.

Act now.

Check out more of Nick's amazing writing at his website here https://nromeromusic.wixsite.com/poetrycorner!