> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.andyposner.org/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Signs of Life
- URL: https://www.andyposner.org/signs-of-life/
- Published: 2024-10-14T20:45:19.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-18T20:58:56.000Z
- Description: When you have run out of courage; when every day is a loaded gun and your hand is not on the trigger; when you have given all you have to give and still disaster looms;
- Author: Andy
- Tags: America on the Brink, poetry, #Migrated-1784090317409, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-07-15 04:39

When you have run out of courage;  
when every day is a loaded gun  
and your hand is not on the trigger;  
when you have given all you have  
to give and still disaster looms;  
when clouds look like rockets  
and ants begin to goose-step along  
a branch, hungry for other ants;  
when the walls shake though  
the earth is still, and your lungs  
heave though your body is motionless;  
when fear becomes a hammer you are  
poised to swing at your neighbors;  
when what you see is unreal and what  
is real is not seen; when the doe gives  
up on its fawn and the hawk abandons  
its nest; when joy is feeble and lucky  
is the light that makes it through the fog;  
when you try to shake the world  
to its senses but your hands find  
no purchase, and rocks tumble so deep  
you hear no crash, and neither death  
nor disease nor disaster is sacred;  
when the bullhorn, the pulpit, the uniform  
are abused; when rubble turns from  
metaphor to dust and night descends  
with no hope of salvation, do not  
give in to silence:

Even a whimper is a sign of life.