Split Brains
Citizens of tomorrow
convened no protests
or counter-protests.
Neither did they tear
down statues revered
by the other side or
rage on social media.
Though they remained
political creatures:
liberal and conservative,
religious and nonreligious,
partisans of freedom or
champions of equality.
They still cracked jokes
in the echo chambers
of antipodal ideologies.
Having chosen the
thought-sieve, the
neurological filter
most agreeable to
their prejudices as
a rite of passage,
they were more
party-minded, more
polarized than we
of the prior century.
To them it seemed
the opposition could
not be serious
(just sly jokesters
play-acting dissent).
No one believed
the other believed
anything but what
they believed.
All their talk was like
an overripe melon
cracked down the middle.