Burn the Candle at Each End

2020 was a shitty year
On this, I think we can each agree
Sadly this is where consensus ends
Due largely to our dichotomy

Skewed sharply by a vast division
The red, the blue and sometimes the green
Manifest tribal polarity
Filling all the spaces in between

Bleakly entrenched in our opinions
Willing to lose every Facebook friend
Self-confident in our position
We’re burning the candle at each end

All the echo-chambers resonate
With battle cries of social disdain
Sacrifice all sense of decorum
While partisan futilities reign

A broad chasm that’s untraversable
Awash in our cognitive bias
Entrenched deeply in terra firma
We disagree rather than discuss

Unmoored from accountability
Abandoned helms we no longer tend
Adrift in an ocean of exploit
We’re burning the candle at each end

Eventually, it will break down
This social machine will eat itself
The disharmony will self-correct
Relocating grief back to the shelf

It appears there in that final hour
That these profound contrasts shall abate
It seems childish insecurities
Are no less immune to rampant hate

So surrender your swords for plowshares
Defy the schisms that we must transcend
Disengage our combative spirit
Stop burning the candle at each end