American Authority

The bark peels off of trees like
the skin off of an orange and the
eyes that watch us work don’t
go anywhere accept to commune
with others like them about how
slow things are moving, and how
razor thin the margins for success
are becoming. Written rules should
be easier to follow than we make them;
like a horseman with a bright lantern
held over his head in the fog leading
us somewhere better. Instead we have
an unpredictable mountain lion ahead of
us with a flash light taped between its ears
and it is taking us in circle after circle.
All we do in the meantime is continue to
follow too afraid of what else could be out
there in the unknown, and not confident that
we ourselves could handle it if we ever
tried to find out.