"This Country" A Poem by V.G. Grace

Begun with a word,
 

and now we're here.

 

Speeches,
 

letters,
 

stories,
 

violence,
 

come together 

in
 

brilliant,
 

failed,
 

profitable
 

experiment.

 

I roll,
 

dip,
 

in this tide,
 

of this ocean
 

of profitable pain.

 

But I can't tell you
 

anything
 

that hasn't been told before.

 

Outgoing logic
 

and incoming myth
 

all come together
 

somehow,
 

into the new world.

 

Old world peeks through
 

just when it's needed,
 

showing its face,
 

showing it's never really left;
 

fattened
 

with new world prosperity,
 

with new world hypocrisy.

 

But I can't tell you
 

anything
 

that hasn't been told before.

 

I'm looking around
 

at what's been laid to rest
 

and what's sure to come;

 

millions
 

of hearts
 

reliant on the same bullshit and victory,
 

and it never stops looping round.
 

You've got an extra eternity or so?

 

Because the circular nature of time
 

and destiny,
 

never stops
 

meeting at the center
 

of our collective shame
 

and satisfaction.

 

But I can't tell you anything that hasn't been told
before.