Zeitgeist

It started with the shock
(And the shock and awe)
Then the monetizing
of fear and attention
stimulated by 24 hour
scrolling alarm.
There was finger pointing
and hate fanning,
an us-against-them
rip current
we couldn’t escape.

We glimpsed Hope
then we lost Hope
over and over,
until the hate spilled out
formed a tsunami
fueled by the
the lock-step
dumbing down,
the entertainment value
of ignorance
broadcast on our
unescapable devices.

So we coronated a devil
the leviathan
who gorged on hate
and let plague prosper,
while swarms of protest
were never enough
to stave off the
the dead ones in school halls,
the bloodied rights of masses,
the arming of idiots
the fires and floods,
the crimes of church and state.

Then two decades in
to this human debacle,
our sanity eroded and collapsing,
they announced
that aliens walk among us
and I wondered,
hoped and prayed

Oh! but what if they are angels?

Poem ©2023, Jen Payne. Image: group of angels, Corrège. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.