The Future of the Past
The
Future of the Past
Gold glaring vulgar,
Petty opulence to surround.
No show of strength this,
Merely garish self-congratulation,
Just a harking back to a bitter history,
Long lost to infamy.
Ah, what one wishes!
What dreams fondled!
Think you to recreate a past
You were no part of?
It has already been,
It is dimly remembered.
It was discarded as unwieldy,
Unworthy,
Unwanted…
So have you become.
You tie yourself to visons dispensed with,
Dreams of glory tasted by the few.
And what of that?
You see yourself of their number,
Land snatchers and self-titular that they were.
They too saw themselves superior,
They too thought themselves beyond reproof.
What matters that you run roughshod?
All have been beneath you,
So you are informed
By the lackeys you have bought.
Those trampled underfoot have long paved your way.
You look to your apologists,
Craven and grasping at your leavings,
How much longer
Can they explain away your brutishness?
Your callousness?
Your criminality?
Know this:
With every new license you overreach,
With every new laxity granted,
You have come to believe you may defile all,
Without impediment or censure or hindrance,
But you have already overstepped,
And the boundary you cannot see fast approaches.
You have wounded the sensibilities of too many,
You have awakened loathing in those you count as shield.
You cannot insult everyone without remedy.
You supply the masses with common ground,
And it shifts beneath your feet even now.
You think you have latitude,
You will face the multitude.
Do you not hear the rumble
When they turn the machines off?
That is no echo,
And it is not praise of your destruction –
It is the low growl of a beast,
A beast you made,
And your dumb ass won’t ever shut up,
So the beast tracks you easy…
You will take the next step,
And another after that,
And soon,
You will take exactly the wrong step,
And the beast will pounce.
You have made it much too big to be stopped,
And you do not have enough gold to dazzle it,
Nor dissuade it.
You will take that wrong step,
You have already plotted your course,
And your future,
Is foretold by the past.
History is cruel,
And all roads lead to ignominy,
For those who are cruel.
May you live long enough to experience it.
Cliff Lake 10/23/2025
Copyright © Clifford Lake 2025
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