Remaking the World - June 17 2026

 

Remaking the World

June 17 2026

It’s always pitchforks.

When the people rise up

against the plutocrats and overseers

the gated enclaves are always attacked

with agricultural implements

most have never held

let alone own.

Or perhaps, it’s because mass unrest

is a thing of the past;

the villagers

and Frankenstein’s monster,

the sans-culottes

with pitchforks and torches 

storming the Bastille. 

The tank-man at Tiananmen

armed with shopping bags;

which doesn’t really count

but was even more courageous. 

So when we revolt

will it be slogans and memes

and pitchfork emojis,

satirical texts

sent by phone?

At home

in front of screens

remaking the world by proxy.

Or will we be too distracted

to even notice?

With the world on fire,

the political class

enriching themselves,

and frozen wars

on foreign shores

we’ve gotten quickly bored of

  — too many to count —

will we throw up our hands

and narrow our gaze

to the everyday

of our personal lives?

Overwhelmed

and too full of despair to rebel

will we tend to our gardens and till the soil?

Close the door behind us

and retreat to our easy chairs,

thrilled to let the tech-bros

seduce us with their toys?

Too political and didactic for what I really want to be working toward. But at least it scratched the itch of my daily compulsion to write — that is, write something …anything!