the news of the day in poetry

if there is any good news anymore
if we are to look for silver linings
in the cracks between the madness and the hate
the corruption and the lies
the persecution and hypocrisy
here’s the good news

the good news is
there cannot be any real Illuminati because
the Illuminati would’ve put this fire out months ago
big grand conspiracies thrive on order not random chaos
there cannot be any reptilian shapeshifting aliens
or demonic cabals or any other behind-the-scenes nonsense
because even supervillains want something functional to rule
not this bleeding mess of ignorance and tribalism
the good news is
the grand secret conspiracies have all been disproven
by the shitty shambling public conspiracies
taking away our rights
all up in our faces
the good news is
there was no centuries-long master evil plan anywhere
there are just interchangable cruel rich morons
stacked atop each other grinning as they wound us
only as potent as whatever set of cons
they pulled the last couple of years
if there were any grand established evil
with decades worth of standards
they would’ve pulled the plug

the good news is
something that you might think is bad news but
it frees us to fight back
the good news is
it’s not that we or anyone
was put in any place for any particular reason
no fate, no destiny, nothing specific or magic
rather simply
here we are, whatever we are, by random accident
but we can shape ourselves now
to do the most good we can
for as many as we can
for as long as we can
we can make the choice
to do good now

the bad news is that freedom
freedom from tyranny
freedom from hatred
freedom from cruel inequalities
from selfish short-sighted small-mindedness
that freedom is almost never given to us
that freedom is never a gift
from a benevolent queen or king or god
freedom rather is won by us
freedom has been won by us before
freedom can be won by us again
but only if we stop expecting
some deity or cool person
to get it for us and
do it ourselves
we still can be free
after a goddamned lot of work
eventually
and that is the good news