Survivors carry
The lives of those who have passed
Into the new world

You always give me love
But I'm hostile towards you

You always trust in me
But I'm clueless what to do

You tell everyone I'm a gentleman
But I've never held the door

You tell everyone I'm a hero
But I've never been to war

You say I make you happy
But I only see you frown

You say I lift you up
But I only let you down

You think that I'm a man
But a man I'll never be

Why do you think I'm always scared
When you believe in me?

She took the part
That broke her heart
And soon would take her life

But the pirouettes
Help her forget
She's dancing on a knife

With each passing glance
We're all looking for someone
Behind strangers eyes

Memories of you
Cannot fill these empty arms
Pride can't keep me warm

Should a primitive tribe be civilized?
Are we civilized or savage?

Leave them the aborigines to their home
in peace
their abode in the depth of forest.

But where's their abode?
we cut the jungle and made road
where would their babies be born?
in the smoke of engines blaring of horns
so hard for them to birth
on the dwindling patch of their earth
our Paleolithic ancestors' living fossils
who with iron will
fought bullets with bows and arrows
now falling by the bullies of progress
begging for last living space.

Leave them the way they lived so long
unspoiled with their own education and culture
let them retain their own way of life
and not make them civilized the way we are.

I met the man by chance on that riverside town.

The only one around at the deserted strand
I asked him the shortest way out
after I had my fill of the river.

He told me about the fish market
where the fresh catches arrive every morn
and the place ten minutes farther north
where if I slowed down
could catch the magnificent spectacle
of the orange orb thirstily dipping in the river
and if I stayed back for the night
would surely go insane
when the moon sets the river on silver fire
but if I was really intent on leaving
a half hour's drive would get me the highway.

I was thinking of the amazing mathematical probability
of my traveling over three hours to see the river
and his traveling ten minutes on a bicycle
to fetch his son from school on that riverside town
for our once-a-lifetime meeting on the life's highway
and then having him a permanent visitor in my memory
at sunsets and moonrises over the river.