Time Has Come Today

I’ve stopped talking out loud
about the fate of the nation

having decided we’re stuck with it
until it breaks more of the people

who do not believe
they could ever be bent over

the knee of the nation’s
loathsome mythologies

Those are not my people
I do not know if they ever could be

Right now I know who hears me
and to whom I will listen

I know who loves me
and to whom I will return love

I know who will fight beside me
and to whom I will lend my sword

These are
my people

Beyond them already 
comes the war

as it has always been 
only louder

It has always been
at my door

yet somehow it seems a new time
has clicked around

a time to stop seeking
civility among the gray ranks

The time for talk
is done