The black oily smoke

Black smoke billows from the site of a suicide car bomb near the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad.  2005 Sabah Arar / AFP / Getty Images

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The Black Oily Smoke

The black oily smoke

Came up here and there, in wisps of warning.

We mostly ignored it.

It seemed so small, and we were so strong.

Or so we believed.

And the black oily smoke came more and more,

Yet with long stretches of absence.

Some of us noticed, and our feelings of dread started.

We knew where it came from –

From our choices, our lifestyles, our greed.

But mainly it was caused by our determined stupidity.

The black oily smoke came more and more.

Some of us threw out sparks,

Hoping that a clean blaze would catch and burn away the stupidity.

That fire never seemed to catch.

And as the black oily smoke came more and more.

Our structures, our conveniences, our habits and our patterns,

Began to crumble.

Sometimes not obviously, at least not at first.

But more and more, they gave way into dissolution.

And the black oily smoke came more and more, covered more and more.

And the question is:  is it too late? 

Will this black oily smoke consume us and suck our lives away?