ICE

A long dark

convoluted road

we travel on.

 

Immersed within

foreboding shades of the past

Gestapo, Brownshirts

the Klan.

 

Hiding Identity

behind masks

with enough armament

to invoke slaughter and mayhem.

 

Enough firepower

to kill innocents,

to intimidate

with mindless intention,

to suppress

protest,

to stifle

conscience,

to murder

goodwill,

to decapitate

community.

 

A long dark

convoluted road

we travel on.

 

Subject to

the iron will of

despots,

the capricious

whim of

mindless leaders

without any sense of grace,

lacking moral compass

devoid of empathy and compassion.

 

History is rich

with such examples

of horrific and needless

suffering,

where blood and death and anguish

abound.

 

A long dark

convoluted road

we travel on.