Nothing could be plainer than the things that have been done
And there can be no mystery in what is yet to come
It’s now that howls at nothing; It’s now that runs and hides
It’s now that winds its spineless coils and slithers out of sight

On my arrival, all I learned was from those gathered round
I had no memory of my past, no future to be found
Books that were given to me only spoke of victory
To be treated as our truth and proof of our history
When I began to question things, the lies soon followed on
All the wars, what were they for, and did they help anyone?
It seemed that all this time had been wasted to the extreme
One step forward and two steps back, I realised I had been
Born into a damage that’s real and worn by everyone
Nothing could be plainer than the things that have been done

The cause and effect are forever flowing through our lives
We all know how it will end and how no one will survive
Shocked by our own ignorance, we clutch at the old pretence
Trapped within the falsehood of our manufactured suspense
The echo arrives before the shout has even begun
With the dreams of our past, we believe we’ve already won
Storm warnings were ignored because the sky was always blue

This wasn’t the future but the past that was coming true
Here we go again and again, it’s all been said and done
And there can be no mystery in what is yet to come

We no longer finish thoughts before we get distracted
We’re just a character in our own game to be acted
If we shout a little louder, the truth will be drowned out
No longer noble, it’s the animals that know more about
Survival means we must forget about turning the tides
We’re speeding towards the canyon in our dopamined rides
Now, we’ve made your bucket list, are we ready to defend
Our right to make sense of it all, and so not to pretend
When it all catches up, there will be less ladders than slides
It’s now that howls at nothing; It’s now that runs and hides

We’re sold maps as mazes, that’s why we can never be found
Always searching the skies for treasures buried underground
Blame is passed hand to hand, decisions forever deferred
Flexibility only bends its way to the absurd
Moral neutrality used as camouflage every night
Wraps us in complexities that took away all our fight
Rooms arranged to forget there was anything ever here
A never-ending spiral stairs watches us disappear
With a perfect avoidance, it can quietly dim the light
It’s now that winds its spineless coils and slithers out of sight

Shared with dVerse MTB prompt to write a glosa. My quoted lines (italicised) are taken from the song ‘Now’ by Nomeansno. Finding lines to work with was a challenge and the whole write took a fair few hours. I’ll struggle to get the song out of my head tonight as I go to sleep.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

The Only Prize

The more things we desire
The more we have to earn
Freedom no longer stokes the fire
If more prizes are your concern