Descent and the Darkening

By Cliff Lake

 

Descent and the Darkening

 

What is this waking you from your uneasy sleep?

How long did it take this horror to creep?

How were you to know what burden was in store?

How much of this did you willingly ignore?

Which of these acts are an exaggeration?

How did they manage this horrific transformation?

Did you not see this happen in your plain sight?

Day never suddenly becomes the night.

 

But you ask,

“Why has this trial come to our place?”

The ordeal has again risen,

Only wears a different face.

But you ask,

“Why me? Why here? Why now?”

The scourge came upon us long ago,

It is but ours to unallow.

 

Do not each look to blame one another,

It was you each who forsook your brother.

Shook your head, turned your back, chose to be blind,

Do you think you will remain unassigned?

The demand has come that you blindly agree,

The demand has come if you wish to be free.

The torment comes again to curse us all,

We must united stand or singly fall.

 

Still we ask,

“Why has this trial come to our place?”

The ordeal has again risen,

Only wears a different face.

But you ask,

“Why me? Why here? Why now?”

The scourge came upon us long ago,

It is but ours to unallow.

 

No longer can we be some sleepy land,

Dreaming untroubled and well suntanned.

No longer fattened and money in hand,

And claiming we just don’t understand.

No longer can we claim to be the fair flower,

Or the stern guard looking down from the tower.

No longer claim to be the pristine avower:

The dark has descended, and it is ours.

 

But you ask,

“Why has this trial come to our place?”

The ordeal has again risen,

Only wears a different face.

But you ask,

“Why me? Why here? Why now?”

The scourge came upon us long ago,

It is but ours to unallow.

 

But we ask,

“Why us? Why here? Why now?”

The scourge came upon us long ago,

It is but ours to unallow.

 

Cliff Lake 7/14/2025

Copyright © Clifford Lake 2025

Location: Wichita, KS, USA

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