Hugh Levick - Composer  
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THE DARK ONE

I woke
I sang
I saw us bow
Before the dark one
Wishing reality
Would end

The tariffs of principle
The unbowed joy of love
Were eviscerating us

We were a new kind
Of heathen sending trains
Of dead innocents back
To their waiting families

We had surrendered
Convinced that ‘free’
Was more than a word

We made our t-shirts,
Our cars, our bowls
And brushes into weapons

We fought to stay blind

We twisted the earth
Into a crowbar and jacked
The universe off our backs

We tried to celebrate
With extravagant diseases
A booming market and leisurely
Affairs but the harpoons of disgust
Made us weep

Soon the resources of two
Earths would be needed
To sustain us



We started hoarding
And taught savagery
To the young

Never before had prosperity
Been so widespread

No one believed
That there was no more water
No one believed
That we were getting ready
To become cannibals

I woke
I sang
I saw us bow down
Before the dark one

He heard me, opened doors
For me, encouraged me to sing on
Knowing full well that the ways
Were lost and
Lost even were the words
That had named them