The End Of Imperialism. 

 Is the end, the end of an empire;
writhing in chaos, an anguish of gunfire,
churning in hatred, and lost to us all?

 It may be the end of the end of an empire,
when people wake up to the fact of the gunfire,
the fact that its fire may yet burn us all.

 If people will hide in the wings of an empire,
growing off others who die in the gunfire,
what does that do for the minds of us all?

 In truth, we are held by the ghost of an empire.
It fades as we watch and what's left is the gunfire.
We watch it as if it's not part of us all.

 If people, for duty, will die for an empire,
losing themselves while they worship the gunfire,
why should we feel that they died for us all?

 It seems that they died in the fear of an empire
that haunted and cursed them and buried them in gunfire,
but still the undead must live on with us all.

 If children are born for the sake of an empire,
an empire of fate in the face of our gunfire,
will they die; or grow numb, getting lost in us all?

 In ideals we raise them, with laws like an empire.
That is blind conflict. That is why we have gunfire.
We cannot expect them to live for us all.

 We strive to be free, yet our jail of an empire
holds us as we hold it, and now we sell gunfire
to others, so how can they trust in us all?

 Each of us lives with ourselves, not an empire.
We cannot pretend we are safe from the gunfire.
These two simple facts mean a lot to us all.