by J. Clifford Milligan
It does not mean
you prefer
the friction of sticks
to a Bic or a Zippo.
It does not mean you prefer
bearskin to blue jeans,
or raw meat to lasagna.
It means you know
things come at a cost
every sword or knife or laser
cuts both ways.
For every nuclear reactor,
there are 1,000 bombs,
for every email sent,
a malware is launched,
for every electric vehicle
a child wallows
in a cobalt pit.
They aren’t anti-technology
they just aren’t afraid
to crawl back
the tunnels of history,
the centuries and millennia
darkened by the lies of optimism
or pessimism
and the ever-presence
of bloodthirsty greed
and totalitarian lunacy.
They can see
the blackened bone yards
scorched and still smoking.
They can see
there isn’t much
that we can trust.
And they aren’t afraid,
in the end,
to smash a few looms.
© 2024 J. Clifford Milligan All rights reserved.
Use the “Leave a Comment” form below to share comments on this piece.
Excellent work. Well done.