As Empires. Audio Text Poem by Robin Ouzman Hislop

as our planet hurtles through (hurtles hurtles hurtles)
the aftermath of a super nova (super nova super nova super nova)
	mid-stream – beyond the void faster – void faster
	than entangled space – as stars go out  as stars go out as stars go out
	as stars go out world wide world wide
on our daily media show
we chat to each other
as if we were in the know
	fine tuned to dystopia
in our quantification of atomic seconds
seconds seconds seconds seconds seconds

does anybody know – does anybody know
what we are from before -  before before before
in our new normal normalcy normally normal
in our new normal normalcy normally normal
with our daily dance with death on the doorstep
with our daily dance with death on the doorstep

as sudden as a theatre's curtain falls
or calls for a change of costume (calls calls calls)
& nothing more	that this isn't
			the war to end all wars
			at least not yet not yet not yet not yet
just the plague regularly
as empires fall regularly
regularly regularly regularly

Robin Ouzman Hislop is on line Editor at Poetry Life & Times at Artvilla.com. His numerous appearances include Cold Mountain Review (Appalachian University, N.Carolina), The Honest Ulsterman, Cratera No 3 and Aquillrelle’s Best. His publications are collected poems All the Babble of the Souk, Cartoon Molecules, Next Arrivals & Moon Selected Audio Textual Poems. A translation from Spanish of poems by Guadalupe Grande Key of Mist and Carmen Crespo Tesserae, the award winning (X111 Premio César Simón De Poesía), in November 2017 these works were presented in a live performance at The International Writer’s Conference hosted by the University of Leeds. UK. A forthcoming publication of collected poems Off the Menu is expected in 2020