Let’s wind up
Let’s regress
I don’t like the state
The way it is
I have no voice
Or one I don’t use
I think for myself
When they tell me to
The great freedom
Hangs just in front
Of the crowd whose
Hands won’t snatch it.
while you were napping
other stuff was happening
your dog rover took your trike
went for a spin on the turnpike
when you were upstairs and resting
you missed more that was interesting
your new teacher visited your mother
talked about this, that and the other
a rocket ship landed on the lawn
but you were tired, started to yawn
so many more important things go on
the very serious and the putting-you-on
just stay alert as long as you’re able
don’t fall asleep at the breakfast table
why does it never work
i try try try try again
then try one more time
after that and it never
seems to happen
maybe there’s something
wrong with me
maybe it’s blind chance
i attempt not to think about
the possibility i might
not make it but it
creeps in once in a while
more like always
in a while
In huts boiled rice
a family sits
with expectation
especially the children
tearing scraps of paper
biting, eating
and a country moves on
with railway tracks
and trains entering
passengers witness
to seething darkness
it does not matter
what you eat
it matters why you eat
as economists and sociologists define the poverty of experience
inexperience
paucity of love.
Eternally bereft of
Anything like the
Feeling I had when
We were walking
Hand in hand on
The beach, nothing
But the sound of
The ocean and the
Sense we were
Entering a new time.
In Myanmar they took over
not by blood, getting rid
of stained hands and feet
took over by imprisoning
prison and gun shots
where in the past manacles
and fists threatened to kill
in the first instance
where opposing this meant
cold doors and corridors
where simply saying no
was heresy
but triumph comes in different measures through
a box where people in chorus can say “Out”.
In Myanmar the gutsy storm replaced fresh breath
of the wind, where no
had to say: yes.
Dancing souls,
On a watery stage!
No fear of death,
No surety of age!