Hitler's Bunker

31 August 2022

Americans closing in, after ravaging
much of Italy, I wonder, did any
ask, "What have we done?
What rubble becomes our heritage?"
If any living would know themselves,
I counsel reflection upon these years
when fascists strove to make Rome stick for all.
But now the rubble (no more storied columns,
monuments of power believed), becomes a doom.
Destruction has a new allure, the fasces
christen every room, and man no longer
wills to be alone. It is the total will
that governs even "freedom-loving" people. Where is safe?
There are still mountains, true, but mankind
cannot thrive outside the law, and in our time
the law abuses some for fun.
This must be known if we still
wish to be made human. Both hard sides
of contradiction must be grasped and known.
We need the law. The law abuses.
If there be an easy answer, I don't know it.
This I know: some govern well, but others
move within the doom of Hitler's bunker,
where all hope is lost, the only option death.
Be not like them, consumed by hate,
nor hating them, for then hate wins,
but neither drown in naive love, for man
loves dominance most, for reasons unknown,
and this will never change. Carve out
a home away from man's cold quest
and rule it well. This is called happiness.
One wonders that the Hitlers could not find it
seeking total domination from the bunkers of the world.