Perspicacious Persists

By Cliff Lake

 

Perspicacious Persists

 

Perspicacious looked out upon the unraveling,

And he packed his bags.

He could not say

If it was the beginning of an end,

Or the end of a halting start.

It mattered not which –

An end is not defined by its beginning.

Perspicacious spent no time wondering:

It had gone wrong,

In spite of his efforts,

In spite of the efforts of others,

Spite and cruelty fed upon themselves,

And there was plenty of both to go around.

So, he packed his bags,

Said minimal goodbyes,

Traveled far,

And dug in.

The unraveling persisted,

Grew angry,

Violent,

Virulent,

And raged through.

Perspicacious rode it out,

And when all had come apart,

He wandered the tatters,

And kept his head down,

And his wits up.

The controls were dead,

But the ravers were not,

Preying on each other,

When easier targets were not found.

Perspicacious persisted,

But did not participate,

That way lead to danger and

Death was too easy,

It was living that took skill.

Perspicacious persisted –

At the last,

It was all he had ever known anyway,

And his bags were always packed.

 

Cliff Lake 2/23/2025

Copyright © Clifford Lake 2025

Location: Wichita, KS, USA

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