Dereliction of Duty

From the top to the bottom, The world is nothing If not a flaming cauldron Pulling us in, you, me, each and every one Down a slippery slope Into the breach Because we can and must, And when it comes How do you rise to meet the tide, Or do you waiver, falter and fall? This moment when there is just you How do you rise? While all around others cower Because they know not what it means To rise Each moment we arrive In a field littered with the fallen And the falling While all around others depend On what we have yet to draw Everywhere you turn You see the needy and the helpless Drowning because they never learned to swim Waiting and watching for those who know To do what is duty bound And so it goes, the few rise and the many sink Their cries the same, but oh so different You, me, to each our own On the cusp of a crux That is it all (7/20/24)