Cold Shower

If failure means duplicating the past
Then history repeats itself
If confusion leads to controversy
Then the atom bomb is indeed danger
If world peace disguises itself as war
Then progress was lost eons ago in the trenches
If criticism lacks effectiveness because of a failure to budge
Then ignorance and stubbornness take hold and destroy representation
These are realities

We face them just as we face ourselves
We cannot roll out of this dream
No cold shower seems capable
Of jolting us back to sense.

Still, we need one.