Nothing Lasts Forever

Nothing Lasts Forever

MILA PHILIPZIG

By Mila Philipzig

It is your word against mine
And I speak the truth, yet your words win
Your planted evidence becomes real
Your made-up story, though unbelievable
Is not contradicted
No one dares
In this place where lies prevail
In this place where violence chokes all righteous sounds
In this place where you set yourself as both judge and jury
And the rule is not of law
But of blind loyalty, greed, payout
And utang na loob.
Your lies have trapped me
And now endanger my life
Endanger my family’s lives
There is no mercy
In this place where lies prevail
And violence chokes all righteous sounds.

In this place without truth
You create a hierarchy of lives
And give yourself the power
To decide who is disposable
Based on their usefulness for the deception
And disinformation you have chosen to believe
This vicious cycle of deceit
That you now need to endorse
And advertise.
For this hierarchy of lives
That erases humanity, rejects compassion.
You manipulate truth
Bolster systems of abuse
And confer only with yes-saying cronies
To keep up the illusion
That you are on the right
That you are justified
In apprehending innocent women
In attacking unarmed old men
In killing offenseless youth
In exploiting communities
Who go against you

Tell me how you were able to come to this point
Where truth no longer matters
And justice is defined by the highest bidder
Tell me how you do it
Ravage and abuse in the morning
And eat, talk, and sleep normally at night.
Tell me, why you?
What have we come to
That you are in power

It is your world against mine.
Why did I choose to care
Or love my country too much
Yet this truth is persistent
I am not alone
The love for freedom has outlived many despots and tyrants.
Anywhere in this world
There are people like you, there are people like me
And there are always spaces to strive for peace and fight for justice
To restore humanity
Believe in freedom
Despite people like you.

What will survive us, has already begun
Nothing lasts forever
All misuse of power ends in disgrace.
Truth cannot be hidden
It lives longer than any of us.
And as we have come to know
The truth can set us free.