Shtetl

Another chance

to rehearse the age old

drama of the movement

from shtetl, 

to pogrom, 

to Shoah.

Able to send a craft

to Mars for fourteen years, 

collecting invaluable polaroids 

and data, but unable to assuage

or quell a tyrant's desire to 

take over a continent and 

rule the world.

Slowly, the vines killed

5,000 trees in Takoma Park. 

Inch by inch over many years

imperceptible to neighbors.

"They seemed so much a part

of the woods."  They

slowly sap the trees of

nourishment, autonomy, and

health.  Compromising them

with massive weight and

seclusion as the avarice of 

climate change feeds their

growth; the trees succumb 

to death.

One man ruling a

tiny clutch of influencers,

friends, and robber barons.

Stealing and killing from 

everyone in his path.

Those whose home it had been

are forced to leave or die to 

feed the avarice of the vines of

those determined to be - in their

own minds - the ruling class.

How will a world that has endless

capabilities with trinkets and gadgets

meet out justice when it comes to

the grave and myopic hunger of

the maniacal heart of darkness?

How will we keep our drama from 

repeating scenes and acts of well worn

plays that have revealed a sinister bent

and massive infection?

How will we cope down here

on earth, while our aspirations reach

ever higher to the heavens and gloriously

beyond?  

How the heart of darkness healed?