The Ides of Amer-I-Can

O tempora! O mores!
—Cicero

I write in times of plus and minus, in 
decades of division. I write in times 
when what's said aloud is sometimes 
not allowed said. The brain's in halves, 
the heart's in half-knots. In times when 
pronouns take the place of nouns and 
proverbs take the place of thought. Times 
of humanity's peak-ruts: assaults on clear 
new summits (and summits on nuclear assault). 
When the Air Force aims high and diplomacy 
dips low. I write in times when ink seems 
obsolete, pens dead. I write on a computer 
whose newspaper-named fonts beg 
outrageous multiplication. I write in Times.