Once Again, With Feeling

We have been here before

For one breathless instant, 

      The world hung in the balance,

Then, shrugging its shoulders,

      Looked off and walked away,

Already intent on resuming

      Its all too wicked ways, while

Offering up a well-meaning

      Excuse for why things always

Have to be as they ever were

      From time immemorial until

The very end of time, in some

      Dusty, dingy future too grim

To be the product of a fevered

      Imagination, too real to be less

Than the reality we create,

      Lacking a belief in possibilities.