Here We Are Again

no comity or civility

at the treaty gathering

a walled private residence

with no discernible owner

a table set for more but only

thirteen survivors show up

it must be truly an unlucky

number in an algorithm

what other probability

could make it so

dinner plates collide crack

as the last great white men

in the age of ai dissemble

double down on incredulity

shout when no one shouts back

tip over their assigned chairs

storm out in a farcical rage

curse the running program

for setting all this up

god is not in attendance

everything is set back in a few

moments to where it once was

the linen now stained with

spilled wine from drunken careless

hands will later be overwritten

to be streaked with some kind of blood

as the remaining invitees escape

a few perfect deer startle then leap

across the stretch of green lawns

surrounding the lit driveway curving

in a paved arc to the metal gate

it never rains

there's nothing

for the deer to eat

it was once said

no one ever

leaves this place

other than on schedule

the media members wait

outside the lithium and steel

guard post managed by bots

the engine of the limousine

keeps running burning gasoline

a punishable offense but

no one seems to matter

the speaker yells unsolicited

to the recorder that progress

has not been made at the parley

the voice announces

in the transcript how

the planet is too small

to carve it up efficiently

among the remaining few