by June Hall McCash
In the cold morning, the invaded city
muffles the sound of scuffles in the night.
Traffic drowns the echoes carried by the wind,
cries of the seized and of the children
left behind in empty halls and alleyways.
With the early light, night still casts
empty shadows left by the unrelenting
attack on innocence and guilt alike,
by faces marked with terror
at the approaching sound of heavy boots
echoing through the streets,
of masked and mirthless specters
with glass-fixed eyes, armed with
guns, tasers, and new electric gloves,
with violence and cruel indifference.
There is, there was no retreat, no justice,
no escape from lost identity, snatched away
without recourse and chained to a ruthless fate.
When all true judges have been replaced
by sycophants, will we then grasp
that we too are among the fearful, waiting
in the shadows? Will we know that our time
too may come, when promises no longer keep,
when pledges and oaths are but empty words
and that the looming shadow can also reach out
to seize upon our weakness—yours and mine?
Will we recognize it then as the beast it is,
reborn from that cruel phoenix
we thought our fathers had destroyed
in the wars of earlier generations?
Will we concede that evil is perennial,
relentless as crabgrass in our human soil
as it invades our city streets and creeps
its way into our unwary countryside?
We have learned already that hope, good will,
and even laws are but fragile ramparts
against the terror of a tyranny ready to rise
the moment we let down our guard.
Brave speech flames out when justice dies.
Already, we can hear the terrible silence.
June Hall McCash is the author of fifteen books of nonfiction and historical fiction, and one book of poetry. She has been twice named Georgia Author of the Year for her novels. Another of her books of historical fiction won first place in the Chaucer competition for Early Historical Fiction, one of the Chanticleer International Book Awards. Now a retired university professor, McCash holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Emory University. She divides her time between homes on a Georgia sea island and in Tennessee.
