Post-Truth Prayer

by Josh Nisley

These days of death, when all around us sighs
of limp acedia seep from acid souls
and bots vomit their algorithmic lies
in prattling wastelands now the haunt of trolls,
we fell our trees and post our truths and pen
our manifestos for the end of signs.
We wonder whether words will once again
take shape, breathe life, compel dry lines to rhyme.

But all’s not lost so long as words endure.
They give us visions of a world shot through
with cosmologic rhyme. Spellings conjure
old relations and root a tree as true.

We wait on you, enduring Word of truth and tree.
Renew our words, our woods, and set us free.

Josh teaches high school English and college writing while wishing he had more time for leathercrafting.

Photography by Kenneth Godoy