Time is a flat circle

The façade is slipping – perhaps it’s too late,

A porcelain shield that has hidden our hate

Towards one another, a shroud of formality,

The castle on sand that has been our reality.

~*~

Time and again this has happened before:

Fascism, genocide, war after war.

Countless generations who died for their freedom,

A litany of names on an old mausoleum.

~*~

We swore we could learn from the sins of the past,

As the century turned, we were up to the task.

The Millennial promise; the future shined bright.

We would come to discern our wrong from our right.

~*~

But it was illusion, a trick of the mind,

A veil that concealed the worst of mankind.

Gave those most at risk a sense of security;

Prejudice, it seemed, might slide into obscurity.

~*~

Instead, in the West once more witness the rise

Of political figures who live to despise

Their fellow beings based on sex, creed, or colour.

Position them as a threat: the discernible “other”.

~*~

They waited in shadow, just out of sight,

And when they smelled fear stepped into the light.

Now watch the mask fall and their true self appear,

Disguised as a patriot – another veneer.

~*~

It is for us to question: Will it ever stop?

The poison of history has stifled the crop.

Old systems resurface, our self-destruction eternal.

Played out on repeat – time is a flat circle.