Stuck Between a Rock and Another Rock – The Walls Closing In

walls closing in
Artwork by illicitSoul https://www.indiedb.com/members/ainas/images/dystopian-city-surrounded-by-walls

Stuck Between a Rock and Another Rock – The Walls Closing In

Do you feel the walls closing in?

You look high and wide

But there’s no place to run

Division has divided us into individuals

We’ve lost a collective unity

Nothing to see but endless rocks

Piles that stretch beyond the human eye

You feel stuck, helpless, and confused

Time marches on; it doesn’t care

Never has and never will

Long after we’re gone it will continue

That so-called hard place isn’t really a place

Just another expression of faint optimism

Life is a hard place, especially now

The feeling of helplessness is reality

Our eyes glued open and wide

Watching as the mechanisms keep building

Bad news is everywhere and in plentiful supply

The garden of good and evil is polluted

Evil has overtaken and spreads like a weed

Every avenue is blocked and guarded

Rocks keep coming and piles keep growing

Mobility is but a word in the dictionary

Waiting anxiously is the task of the moment

As if the worry will bring about change

We’re all between the rising walls

Looking at one another for some solution

Hoping for that unexpected miracle

But the reality of things is a lost hope

Projection into a future world

One where worse becomes worse by the day

Visions drawn from theatrical apocalypses

Dog-eared paperback novels and nightmares

As if any moment the sweep will begin

Stormtroopers of destruction will appear

Our lives permanently disrupted

And the walls never ceasing to grow

The masses are gathered in masses

Each alone in their painful thoughts

Beaten down until the point of exhaustion

Weak and on the brink of compliance

None realizing that a solution is there

A thousand hands working as one

A million voices speaking in unison

Together working for something better

It only takes a single rock to be moved

And then another and still another

It won’t be an easy task

The walls can be broken

Fear can be thrust aside when we are together

Our rallying call is now or never

It’s time for ‘we the people’

To become ‘we the people of the world’

Stop the tyranny

Or be crushed by the wall

 

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R J Schwartz
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R J Schwartz

I write about everything and sometimes nothing at all. I'm fascinated by old things, rusty things, abandoned places, or anywhere that a secret might be unearthed. I'm passionate about history and many of my pieces are anchored in one concept of time or another. I've always been a writer, dating back to my youth, but the last decade has been a time of growth for me. I'm continually pushing the limitations of vocabulary, syntax, and descriptive phrasing.

3 thoughts on “Stuck Between a Rock and Another Rock – The Walls Closing In

  • March 9, 2022 at 1:30 AM
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    If ever there was a time for ‘we the people’ to stand up for change in the world, this is it. There is bad happening almost everywhere you look, we need to bring back the good. Well-worded poetry, Ralph.

  • March 9, 2022 at 4:48 PM
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    Yes…We all feel beaten down….and waiting for the walls to fall down on us. Hope is out the window. Helplessness prevails. Words used through out your Poem highlight all our feelings of the times. Every line a poignant reminder to the times we are going through. Excellent thoughts. The kind that makes the reader follow along…looking for a break or release of faint optimism for an unexpected miracle . Yet…Alas…”It is what it is”…As predicated by some recent great unknown philosopher. I hope you are right in your writing: “Fear can be thrust aside when we are together”. That can be a reason for Hope.

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