Journal | Darkness Comes With the Night (Revised Edition)
Note 2022
The future? It is obvious. World War III is a matter only of ‘when’ not ‘if’.
Civilization, worldwide, is collapsing before our very eyes.
And with this comes impenetrable darkness and a very, very long night.
And we have only ourselves to blame, yet again, for failing to recognize that ancient principle:
When the vociferous minority is presumed to be the silent majority
and
the silent majority is presumed to be the vociferous minority
Note 2021
Written in 2020 when international tensions were rising, populism seemed resurgent, of all places, in the USA under the leadership of, God forbid, the incumbent at that time of the title leader of the free world. Only now are we beginning to learn of just what has been going on in that benighted presidency and in the skewered mindset of that equally benighted man …
If you swing to populism you will be angered should you venture down. If you love freedom and democracy you will be dismayed because human nature is as bad as ever and incapable of learning from past mistakes.
I received a request to define ‘benighted’. Sure. The Oxford English Dictionary defines this as being in a state of pitiful or contemptible intellectual or moral ignorance; overtaken by darkness.
Benighted!
Darkness steals over the brow,
long shadows become longer still.
The ink of night settles
on men's minds,
And day turns into night
at the noonday
But no eclipse
No portent in the heavens...
Only the darkness of men's minds
ensnaring, tentacle-like,
strangulating all thought of
freedom and independence
Liberal democracy...
muddied, dirtied, soiled, a rag
thrown in the gutter bleeding...
Life ebbs away
men and women, short-sighted,
raving and craving
for popular uprising
settling naively for its dirty bedfellow
Populism
Liberal democracy
stamped underfoot
The least qualified seeking
the highest offices of state.
Selfishness abounds
Nepotism strides the long corridor
preening itself in its
delinquent victory
Intelligentsia rubbished
Establishment cast as elitist
People silenced
then wooed...
The long dark shadow of Nazism
and every shade of fascism
spreading its tentacles
strangulating,
obliterating,
demanding the supreme penalty
summary execution
death row
condemned cell
torture chamber
waterboarding;
and a man amok,
way past his prime,
in a dirty darkened
grey house on the hill,
A woman hangs out her
washing on a hill
and a ton of paper is trashed away
of a previous Administration,
the last vestiges of freedom gone;
as party activists
blinded to reality
convinced of some Second Coming
see not the terrible thing they have done!
Strident voices scream out
and pummel multiculturalism dead
Strident voices scream out
lies believing them to be truth
Strident voices scream out
self-righteously
and pompously declare:
Well it is a shame I know
But there you go
The law must take its course
preening his image in his lawyer's gown
in the mirror of his mind;
A sudden, sharp rejoinder from within
makes him belch self-consciously
as Reason takes one last swipe
at delusion before departing,
and his nose eschews the liver smell
of his unwanted fart.
Strident voices
pretending their faith
Strident voices
the arch enemy of reason
the arch enemy of GOD
the arch enemy of the Son
the arch-enemy of the Ruach
Down the Unter den Linden
populism strides with menacing ferocity;
Martial music
Long black boots
Brownshirts and breeches
Blackshirts and breeches
the yellow streak of venom
highlighting the crease,
White on Red
an ancient symbol.
A dirty little man
rapes the popular vote,
strangles liberal democracy
and promises the messianic age
and stupid people - still a minority
believe him!
The vociferous minority drown out
the silent majority
who shrug their shoulders,
fearful of losing the status quo
and resting instead on a listless hope
Well, let's give him a chance
He might be what we need
Things have got out of hand
He can't mean all the things he rants
Yes. That's it.
Give him a chance.
The office of state will temper him.
And Reason leaves the Stage
slipping out the side door
as the curtain comes down
in long crimson banners
on the Brandenburg Gate,
Walls go up;
Out of barbed wire, camps are born
and
the dirty little man
delights in his propaganda
Work sets you free in
1933 : When the World went Mad
2016 : The Year the World went Mad
2021 : The Year the World went Mad
2022 : The Year the World Departed
Liberty casts her eye back
from whence she came
The Land of the Free
The Torch flickers
And still bedazzled in great arcs of light
She sees and hears
what silly people in their ugly rejoicing
fail to even notice
The seismic shift of plates
along state lines.
She slowly turns out to sea
It is a better view
A better contemplation
rather than watch the friction;
the hatred that breaks up
a host of states,
family against family,
father against son,
grandchildren against grandparents,
tearing the Union asunder.
And in his office in the Kremlin
another little man smiles self-satisfied,
contemplating his ascendancy
to the world stage.
Deportation from an island.
The letter in the non-descript
but dreaded manila brown envelope
the Portcullis frank, the Crown
Immigration Home Office...
drops lightly to the floor
in a leafy northern suburb of
England's third city
Nervous hands remove
the single sheet,
Cold - austere - blunt
on this eighteenth birthday morning
handling it as one might handle
an explosive device
FINAL DECISION:
APPEAL FOR PERMANENT LEAVE TO REMAIN DECLINED
Your Application
You have applied for permanent entry to the United Kingdom. We have considered your application under Paragraph 41, 46G and 56K of the United Kingdom Immigration Rules... ... It has not been necessary to interview you... ... In accordance with our decision the following actions are to be taken... ...
The reader quakes,
breaks down,
all plans, smashed in an instant!
...SILENCE...
Liberty and Reason
looked quietly on,
then down the line of history
to nineteen thirty-three,
recalled the self-same lines
The following actions are to be taken
You may bring one suitcase and one change of clothing
and nothing else
And you will report at 0700 hours at the assembly point
on Platform 7
Liberty looked back behind her
and down beyond Florida,
casting her watchful eye
upon the troubled minds
of people with uncertain futures
and Latino lines.
Liberty concealed her wrath
at the Alt-Right
The watchword and by-word,
The new word,
The 'in' word,
that justifies
Racism
Anti-Semitism
Misogyny
Hatred
Violence
and decided She would
bide her time
again …
Insurrection
in the Land of the Free
On January 6, in
2021 The Year the World went Mad
Melania, you’re so bootiful
I tell ya wot I’m gonna do
I’m gonna write my book
Those bootiful people
will love it
and I’m gonna call it
My Struggle
Liberty momentarily blanched
at Mar-a-Lago.
Determination flashed
not seen since
1939 and even worse
on a Sunday, December
morning in 1941.
Liberty pondered.
Justice slipped quietly
in view.
Freedom did that which
she rarely does
Liberty and Justice listened,
assented,
and affirmed their agreement.
Freedom had spoken
The matter was closed.
Liberal Democracy heaved a sigh
and counted the millions
doomed to die.
Liberty, Freedom, Justice
momentarily paused,
considered afresh,
but knew the writing was on the wall
when Putin invaded Ukraine
on that fateful morning
February 24,
2022 The Year the World Departed
and quiet minds in quiet capitals
around the world
whispered in terrified resignation
The Opening Gambit of World War III
A piece of paper fluttered quietly
from the printer,
gently touching down beside him.
How strange.
How weird.
How terrifying.
There is nothing more to be said.
He closed the screen,
gently turned down the light,
checked the french doors were locked
and noted the darkness of the night.
He momentarily wondered …
… decided against it …
but tiptoed upstairs, feeling his way,
… … … and departed.
23 July 2022
All Rights Reserved
© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2022
First Written on 3 March 2020, updated in 2021 and again in 2022
KTW
This was written initially as a poem and appears in that format. The format of this dispatch remains stanza, but may be rewritten in prose format.
KTW
Ken Webb is a writer and proofreader. His website, kennwebb.com, showcases his work as a writer, blogger and podcaster, resting on his successive careers as a police officer, progressing to a junior lawyer in succession and trusts as a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives, a retired officer with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, and latterly, for three years, the owner and editor of two lifestyle magazines in Liverpool.
He also just handed over a successful two year chairmanship in Gloucestershire with Cheltenham Regency Probus.
Pandemic aside, he spends his time equally between his city, Liverpool, and the county of his birth, Gloucestershire.
In this fast-paced present age, proof-reading is essential. And this skill also occasionally leads to copy-editing writers’ manuscripts for submission to publishers and also student and post graduate dissertations.
