discarded masks in a parking lot

a dead war veteran
warned me several months ago
about the taliban
taking over afghanistan 
he let me feel their fear
as he slipped through time
I saw them in the airport
as he tried to comfort them
as invisible as me

he said it was the beginning
of world war 3
he told me to shout it
from the rooftops

but I didn't want to be that person
on the side of the road
holding up a piece of cardboard
that says it is the end of the world

so today I did normal things
when nothing is normal anymore
I looked at all the discarded masks
flung about the Target parking lot
and I wondered
where my dead war veteran friend
was now
if he was mad at me
for not starting a revolution

he told me something else
about a train derailing
an attack or a take over that
​is going to happen
soon

I just keep thinking about
those masks 
laying everywhere
trodden with footprints

how careless we are with everything
we are the human stain upon the earth
we look the other way
and keep saying everything will be okay

maybe death will make us smarter