"Hear the past a' calling From Armageddon's side When everyone's talking and no one is listening How can we decide Do we find the cost of freedom Buried in the ground Mother Earth will swallow you Lay your body down" † ~ through the static (for pm) morning dawned as static crackled through early light people wake in stairwells after long and sleepless night schools under netting café and grocery too children learn how drones sound before they come in view screens display the update but truth rarely appears so much information less and less sincere ~ can you hear us? ~ trains across the landscape slower than before promise destinations beyond the station door homework in the shelters dim candles in the halls someone singing protest songs outside the bunker walls the present still remembers each moment of belief but memory can never learn the way to silence grief ~ somewhere through the static a human sound survives fragile as a heartbeat barely still alive repeat through interference faded but still clear a signal of identity transmitted through the fear ~ can you hear us? ~ the guns were briefly silent till someone changed the game rearranged the symbols to promise peace again lines on maps still alter the dead stay where they fell truth collapsed so often most could no longer tell were they hearing echoes of voices disappearing was anyone still left close enough for hearing ~ somewhere through the static a human sound is heard more a scream than speech more whispered than a word beyond misinformation under clearing skies a lullaby awaiting a new day to arise ~ can you hear us? ~ … no … more … war ... rjh 12may2026 ~ namasté ~ ~ † Stephen Stills, "Daylight Again/Find the Cost of Freedom" (Crosby, Stills and Nash. Daylight Again, 1982)
