Refugees of Reason

Too Close For Comfort

Me and you live in fearful times —
history forgot by most that knew,
and remembered now by very few.
Risking a repeat of terrible crimes,

moderate people labelled by unknown
entities that lump us together as leftist,
call us socialist, even communist,
protected behind a keyboard's ugly tone.

Choose 'like' and 'share' and you're the antifa,
as if it's derogatory, intended to bate,
though clearly the majority refuse to debate,
attacked we're most likely to withdraw.

Remember that back in World War II
we were all fighting as anti-fascists;
now Fox News hosts, those mulely revisionists,
cry indignantly, "the left is an angry mob too."

We take verbal beatings across the net –
tactics drawn from the Third Reich's past,
while we think that freedoms will last,
these words that condemn, an epithet

of hyperbole that seeps and leaches
through the facade of public decorum
while billionaires use the public forum
and support your shallow firey speeches.

As history loses all its meaning,
we call you out and you cry blaspheme,
and doublespeak us as the extreme,
leaving many with the funny feeling

that your cries are pure irony
as Moscow thugs and bots spew
forth at all those like me and you
permitting this damage to democracy.

~gtk