Slipstream of History
by Michael Doyle

Seven cycles in a stream of errors
The collaboration of history might be seen
In terms of a series of eras
As these are experienced by human beings

It feels like a long time in the coming
As we waited in place as others came running
History cannot be told in an echo chamber's frame
Just when is a game more than simply a game?

There's a pensive mood stuck between the ages
Like something oddly familiar on the pages
We are hanging tough but going almost nowhere
Two coins as tokens pay civilization's fare

Dull anxiety defines the feelings of a deeper flaw
Felt in the rational sense of reason's law
That we are fixated on the call of the rise and fall
The mourning of yesterday captures the hearts of us all

We stare into tomorrow, and soon, that, too, is past
The only thing we're sure of is that humanity will last
It's funny how the cycles of time build legacies
While we all hold onto what passes for our agency 

From the present back to our ages of antiquity 
Each era is a tale of discoveries and technology
That wave after wave brings war and diplomacy
And through these came our arts and our industry

Until our persistence gets us unstuck between the ages
Casting about in the shadows, reading the pages
We know we must hang tough if we're to get anywhere
This is the magic that pays our civilization's fare

Despite life's complexity and probability of flaws
We rest assured that here in the rationality of law
We find we can measure the patterns of rise and fall
In studying our yesterdays, we find the future of us all

Modern culture rests on the spirit of past exploration
Built step-by-step until we reached our living nation
The shared lineage of our people is what came to nurture
There in our self-interest are the seeds of our cultivated future

All of this is built in the layers that make up history
In a system of choices, there is something to this mystery
Revolutions lead to reformation that shapes our possibility
One by one, we live to see this testament to man's capability

(c) February 15, 2025   Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved