American Requiem

Lament for a Fallen Nation

What requiem should be intoned
for a colossus with ossified bones?

Perhaps silence is the best soliloquy
for a behemoth prone to depravity

Are tears for fading empires warranted –
or will body bags suffice?

If systems focus solely on short-term profit
is the market bell the only meaningful chime?

Sam: Dang! This is too wimpy!

Terri: Yeah, America zzz alive! Why duh requiem?

Tim: Kuz in many ways it's dying . . .

Ted: Isn't the empire at its zenith? Militarily, it seems unmatched & it has much ah the world's wealth.

Chris: The shape of the average American belly is a good metaphor for the nation as a whole: there's a lot of overstretch 'n lard. Consumption is out of balance with production. And in the long run, that's not sustainable.

Tim: There is a physics to the rise and fall of all nations. At this point in time America is on the way down. Some of its concepts were noble, but in many ways most civilizations are too short-sighted.