On Going with the Flow

I.
Stop,
And look around at what you're doing.
Are you
Simply going with the flow?
Or,
Cynically being an obstruction?

Can you not measure the flow:
Its speed?
Its velocity?

Can you remain oblivious
To the taste and smell of the water?
Is it sweet and clear?
Or foul
The color of bloody-tinged piss?

And yet you dip your feet in?
Drinking it all down,
Pretending it is fine?

Do you not realize,
A clear,sweet stream,
Is just beyond the far hills?
Yet do you dare
Make that journey?

II.

OR
Do you just stand there,
Unmoving and unmovable:
Self-satisfied blocking the way?

Your untrained nostrils,
Smell the ignorant stench
That you decided on a long time ago.

Are you frightened,
too biased to face,
anything but your pre-conceived notions:
For which you can never be wrong?

Are you proud there,
Standing in the way:
Unable to shit,
Unwilling to get off the toilet?

III.

Finally
Are you one of those,
A rare breed,
Who see the path,
Between insults and anger,
And steadfast inertia?

Seeing that dismissing the glory
of what is already great,
Having no need for renewal?
Blind to the lack of patriotism there implied?

Seeing a time-honored flaw,
Does not invalidate the system:
And that he is simply a lesson
for future generations to learn.

And that the left hand and the right hand,
Can work together,
Creating the most beautiful art?
We cannot sever the ill-favored hand,
Just to feel selfish pride,
In a hollow victory.