Click!
by Joe Petrulionis
When at last Empire falls, as all others before have also fallen,
when kitchen tables become the only schools,
when human rights become guidelines, deaths become collateral damage,
when the electorate is kept ignorant by its own secrecy laws, justified by fear for security,
when universities become enterprises and real estate development their primary mission,
when tunnels fill with ocean and damaged bridges carry only foot traffic,
when surplus produce on one coast fails to reach the hungry on the other,
when health care becomes the most lucrative investment available,
when mono-cultural food crops fail and infections quit responding to antibiotics,
when Deans and Physicians are compensated like industrial tycoons,
when categories, processes, and systems become more meaningful than individuals,
when the last no fly zone becomes unenforceable, despite its location over US Metro Areas,
when calculating machines are queried for ethical, legal, and artistic decisions,
when separatist energies finally pull apart essential national bindings,
when the invasion, from wherever it may come, finally achieves its beachhead,
and when tanks, enemy or domestic--what does it matter?-- police American intersections,
look for me in the bottom of that last viable foxhole.
When terms are offered I'll be the one with the Molotov Cocktail and disposable lighter.
