We Need More Light

shine liberty's torch in that abyss

the emperor's reinforced

bunker hidden beneath his gilded hall

where he plans to shelter through

the nuclear war he needs to start

the war to end most life

as we learn so we forget

pacing anxious in our cages

at the cusp of the age

of the last written words

we understand

the symbols reduced

to memes streams posts

doctored by ai and bots

the woman who escaped

to the forest's edge

smells of earth and

prophesizes how we

fall back to as it was

before we had

the language for

what we thought

we knew

as we are a fat old man

fingers his smoldering stogie

revels in the pain of others

puffs out blue clouds

of thoughts about

how most times

a cigar is never

just a cigar

how smoking should

be legal again

for children

how cheap puros

would be

if slaves once more

were the ones

who rolled them