The Choice


Not an easy one, to be sure:

We call them “Republicans”
and “Democrats”:

self-righteousness, sometimes half blind,
versus greed, often naked;
entirely real fascists against
sometimes dubious progressives.

On one hand, possible dictatorship, 
oligarchy, democracy’s end here;
on the other, cultural anarchy
weaponized by pity,
the cruelest of false virtues.

Both sides flirt with visions 
of anarchy 
masking a hunger for power,
to bully and frighten the rest of us,
throwing us to confusion
whether stirred by the 1619 
Project or the latest billionaire.

Both sides support mass 
slaughter of children and women 
“for the sake of security,”
crowing for blood or weeping
tears to disgrace a crocodile.

How can anyone sane,
decent, honest, caring,
choose between them?

And yet they are not equal.

I ask myself: Has either side
shown signs of bending
toward decency, even
honesty?
Does either side admit
its human fallibility?
Has either side ever 
corrected before a truth
it did not, exactly, welcome?
Did it then change,
even if reluctantly?

Or does it drive relentlessly
toward the farthest edge
of its own lunacy,
double down in hatred,
threaten our destruction
rather than admit error

and never defeat?

If a time comes when we must choose
between two madnesses
that cannot face a truth
they do not wish to face;
that live a fantasy
of vengeance, lies, and hate,
drunk on certainties
that face any doubt with calls
for silence, removal, blood;
that will not turn the helm an inch
to escape the ice before them
and certain catastrophe
for the rest of us—

then there will be no choice.

Nevertheless, there is the question:
is it a necessary evil
to choose between evils
when it is simply an evil
to refuse the choice?

No, it is not an easy one.

_____

Christopher Bernard is a poet, novelist, and essayist. He recently helped to organize and host “Poets for Palestine: A Poetry Marathon to Benefit the Middle Eastern Children’s Alliance” in San Francisco.