Stephen is a web developer, Bahá'í, and interfaith activist in St. Paul, Minnesota. He likes to write about religion, social justice, sustainability, science, programming, &c.

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poetry, prose, and other strings of words · 1993 - 2003

To the West

Number 87

October 4, 1995

Ever westward, ever westward
Have we pushed.

By right not ours,
By might directed,
Ever westward did man move.

Conquer and enslave,
Destroy and dehumanize,
And ever westward did we crawl.

The Celts, the Mongols,
And Magyar and Turk,
To the west did move.

Spreading atrocity upon
Atrocity,
Ever west did they go.

The Celts too settled,
To be destroyed by
the Christian and the Barbarian.

Into Britain they fled,
Chased, pursued,
By those moving to the west.

The Mythical West
Was Their's.

The Angles, Saxons,
And the Jutes,
Westward they moved,
Pushing the Celts into near oblivion.

Ever westward did
They still push
And push.

And to the West
They went.

And westward did
They drive those
Who were not
Themselves.

Conquered and enslaved,
Destroyed and dehumanized,
We forced them into the
West.

Crying, dying
And spilling seas of
Crimson,
Ever westward,
Ever westward.

And westward they went.

The natives ignored,
The land ignored,
Those of conscious ignored,
Westward did they move.

And westward have we come.

Forcing,
Pressing,
Spreading;
We have come.

Annihilating,
Denying,
Assimilating;
Onward,
To the Golden West.

Closer
Closer
Closer;
   Reaching
For oblivion,
'Till we reach,
Back,
To the East anew,
And the Glory we shall find.

And they will come,
Evermore shall they come.