“Confrontation” by Werner Drewes
(Regarding the Charlottesville protest violence)
which is the twitch
to trigger oblivion
knobs of maniacal
red yellow green
black and white
flashing lights
insane signals
to throw them all
throttle arms
balls-to-the-wall
all the bonfire words
of automatons
burnt to hot cinders
in mouths of
a motorized terror
extreme right and left
pistoned impulses
hard driven hatreds
smash out against
symbols repugnant
intolerance mutual
placards and flags
hoisted high
on hysteria
fascist machines
confront
fascist behaviors
alike yet opposed
in pitched battle
for putative
high ground
across the deep
social divide
mighty engines
excited with power
from factions whose
steampunk moralities
scream in the cogs
of an overhot animus
gears gnash and tear
in a terrible grinding of
clockwork catastrophe
violent implosions
send disarranged
metals and minds
cutting swaths
through the firmament
maiming the flesh
of philosophy
killing the discourse
annealed by opinion
a bloodletting
garish and crude
apparatus of intellect
shattered and scattered
among the mechanical
corpses who litter
an ungodly ground
and the rest of us
here in the smelted
political middle
deserving of wounds
count as casualties
