Image by NinaMalyna

The Batteries Forgotten — 2122

by Amanda Reed

Front lines of freedom remain
Attention span, mental health, and
Somewhere in some of those countries
Full of ethnic hatred in Eastern Europe.

The centralisation of online identity rose up
In Europe. Americans still resist.

A troop of infantry quietly working
In a poor European nation
Dodging Chinese-paid political bullies
To work the circuits of bureaucracy
And bring in the best fancy missiles
Of freedom. No citizens notice.
No citizens notice the tides
No citizens notice the headlines.

For they are busy feeding their children
And running from the fears in their hearts.

Finally, the missiles have cleared customs.
They are ready to defend, to prevail.
To deter. 

But they are a new model
And the toiling civilian
Didn’t know they needed batteries.