i was watching the television footage
of the calls for peace and unity
thinking of how far we’ve come but how lost people can be
before the sun glints off the marble steps and returns to the sea

some guys shot up a bunch of French cartoonists for showing the absurdity
of a middle age religious idol who insisted on martyrdom
because their father told them they’d get something good come kingdom come
and by another sad twist of irony made their victims martyrs too

i wonder why i feel the need to respond to what i hear
and if i’m too much of a news ******
taking in a steady stream of corporate malarkey
burning life away tuned out into the glare

i’m tired of trying to solve all of the problems in the world
i’d only like to sit and write today
and sit and sip my coffee in the sunshine
with no languages and nothing left to say

i was reading about government debt in the paper
and inequality, tensions overseas and Muslim ghettos
i don’t know all that much about it all, so i don’t know
but i let the words swirl around in my head then let it go

a European man decided he wanted more rocks and fruit
a century, or two, or three ago in his cold palace
so he strapped some trees together and set off to trade his ballast
for an empire of golden bodies in the sun

and for me it is the same as i sit here with my ball and chain
in the sunshine of the Americas in the modern age
soaking up stories, wasting time then turn the page
hold in another breath then let it out into the air

i’m tired of trying to solve all of the problems in the world
i think i might start making some instead
why not go out and light a torch and seize the day
a century of life or more or less and then you’re dead

i was thinking about going to see the warriors
i’d bring a camera and a notebook and an open mind
be love and ease the tensions of the ties that break and bind
disappear and skip off beyond the boundary line

i’d probably get captured and beheaded
but it would be fun to hang out for awhile
we could listen to good music and smoke cigarettes and smile
then walk out into the wilderness and look up at the moon

the militant awoke to a loudspeaker crackling
a voice in Arabic calling all to prayer
he dropped his rifle to his side and laid his body debonaire
southeast toward a warmer rising sun

i’m tired of trying to solve all of the problems in the world
i’d rather see them in another way
and lift a sword or pen and just start swinging
at the other strutting actors on the stage

i’ve been reading about the lifestyles of the ancients
how they built their homes from the soil
preserved the harvest from spoil
then scattered back into a grand decay

i was watching television
to see the call for peace and unity
and the victories of liberty
in the city on the Seine

i wrote a poem to free my thoughts
for our freedom and for those who died
so i can write and hold my pride
as a candle in the dark

i’m tired of trying to solve all of the problems in the world
to surrender my life to the master
who painted the sun and the stars and the earth
who drew my light in this image then shattered

**originally posted on my blog at https://sublimeobscenities.wordpress.com/ on January 12, 2015