“The road to hell is paved with good intentions” Saint Bernard
I walk through this land of dust and rocks
Where headless statues lay toppled
As the bloodthirsty mob with torches and pitchforks
Barrels toward Auschwitz and Dachau
Changing the future by rewriting the past
Replacing education with censorship
I climb to the mountaintop,
Survey the arid valley,
Dead, but for the rabid horde, foaming at the mouth,
We want what’s ours, they chant, send them back, they chant
Integration, globalism, populism, doesn’t work, they chant
Us vs them. Only us. No them, they chant
Should I join a side?
Cock my gun? Light my Molotov?
Ally with the tolerant left?
If you’re an ethnic minority, you can join us, no problem
Here’s your pile of bricks,
I hesitate. They only want me because I’m one of them.
I venture down into the valley,
Digging to find water for my dry throat, burning eyes,
But all I find is salt,
As their chants fill my ears
White lives matter, white lives matter, white lives matter
Luring me closer with their siren’s cry
But I return to the canyon top
Past blackened trees and burned grass
Towards the fires blazing in the horizon
The screams of the damned
In eternal torment
Victims of their own corrupt ideologies
I stare down at the ravine,
As the two sides clash together
Charlottesville. Brexit. Election year.
Pillaging the last of the water from this cracked land,
leaving nothing for the innocent trying to survive
Does hell await us all?
*Author’s notes*
After a long wait, I have finally returned to my poetry collection based on famous quotations, see the others below:
1. Left Behind
2. Shattered
3. Crystal
4. Revival
5. Silence
6. Illusory
Thank you to my beta-readers Nic, Rachel and Jennifer. This poem is very much inspired by Ozymandias. It follows an unknown narrator as they traverse an apocalyptic wasteland ravaged by the political bipartisanship that is tearing our society apart right now.