I am Jack’s weakened resolve
Confronted with the world’s wickedness
I am unable to respond with anything more than ambivalence
while the pressure builds

I use terms I don’t understand
to ameliorate the crisis
Fascists make their stances clear
the joke doesn’t go over so well
among the already skeptical

But poll numbers trump logic
whether or not they justify the means
The collective voices turn into a wash
drowning out the past
to drag us around the bends

Where hypocrisy becomes policy
refugees will find no refuge
and denial of our common history
will become our collective flaw
as we all go down together

I am Jack’s bitter defeat…

(20 November 2015)