Oh why oh why 
do I keep going 
back to the same 
river bed knowing that 
for a year the 
water hasn’t flowed there
and what once cold 
and clear and filled 
with waves and serenity 
now lays dry and 
barren what oh what 
do I hope to 
find there as it’s 
now not a river 
but a bridge leading 
nowhere I do remember 
coming here when young
and wading through waxy
reeds into thigh-high water 
to catch a glimpse 
of the life beneath 
and yet and now 
nothing not even my 
youthful reflection nay the 
river still reflects now 
the rocks being me

When did we become 
a society of onlookers 
and gapers with yappers 
as loud as megaphones 
and pointing accusing fingers 
as pointed as a 
sharp stick when did
we stop the cheers
and start the jeers
what happened to us
to actually hope no
not hope but plan
someone else’s misfortune in
order to elevate our 
own fortune when did
winning stop being better 
than our opponents and 
become more about convincing 
that we are rather than 
showing that we are 
we’ve become a society 
of cowards and children 
entitled brats who believe 
that everyone else owes
them simply by being 
alive we are doomed 
if this is where 
we are headed and 
if we have not 
already arrived in Hell