A city is on high alert 

Broken dishes, broken doors, and broken dreams lay scattered

Crickets crawl over the floors of abandoned homes in abandoned towns

Deceitful women lie awake in the dead of night

Each and every man lingers on the front porch, reminiscing 

“Fateful defeat,” they mutter

Gray skies hang over them like a dirty washcloth

Halfway across the world, a young man is learning to speak again

It has been months since the accident and his family is optimistic

Jaded doctors look on with eyes of glass

Kinetic energy, all but killed him yet managed to leave his shell

Lately, he’s been learning how to pray

Many years later, in another town, a family is on their first vacation

Nestled in the mother’s arm is her two year old son

Overwhelmed and overheated, he wails and yelps

Pardon his father, who snaps at his wife, and tells her to shut him up

Quavering, she hushes the flustered infant

Roars from her husband are muted by the love she has for her own blood 

Sometime far into the future, you will be on your own

The skies and seas will cease

Unjust and unyielding -- you and I are bound to our fateful defeat

Vows and paper promises will perish

Words will crumble 

Existence will falter

You and I -- 

Zapped, rapt, bound by our fateful defeat.