almost  this thirst
desire for a first time
which is gone
in reality
so long ago a dust covered memory
to uncover new
so
I convert
feelings into words memories
into letters
*** into objects
nouns and tense
adverbs into tall structures
living in my dream world

so much to yell for
so much to tell
I yell
I appreciate those who listen

Don't go far off, not even for a day
Don't go far off, not even for a day,
Because I don't know how to say it - a day is long
And I will be waiting for you, as in
An empty station when the trains are
Parked off somewhere else, asleep.

Don't leave me, even for an hour, because then
The little drops of anguish will all run together,
The smoke that roams looking for a home will drift
Into me, choking my lost heart.

Oh, may your silhouette never dissolve
On the beach, may your eyelids never flutter
Into the empty distance. Don't LEAVE me for
A second, my dearest, because in that moment you'll
Have gone so far I'll wander mazily
Over all the earth, asking, will you
Come back? Will you leave me here, dying?

steel iron rubber  plastic manpower
cement pavement concrete  
oil gasoline petroleum
adulated back in those days
this wide open nation suddenly
a place the normal family explored
Detroit
my home town
steered the rudder
to the expansion
until the cement highways spread
from coast to coast and the boost to our economy from the
second world war
receded
then
the nation became lazy
the world is more
marketed  on the 1's and 0's  now which we developed
yet
the cellular
the thing we got
caught sleeping
how come the third world has better
cell phone and internet coverages than the U.S.
And Canada a healthy health care market.
I can see a sea rising and if
only the top float
there is going to be a whole lot of drowning.
We Need for if the sea rises to raise the all of us up.
I see progress now like scenes from the 1910';s
20's  where the low sink and the rich float
we must wake up
or again go through
quite a horrific depression
make up your mind America. Be blind and stupid and sink.
Or make it new again.

When Donald Trump opened the floodgates last year,
by basing his campaign on paranoid fear;
By embracing the zealots, the hawks, the alt-right,
he emboldened the racists to take up his fight.

When Donald Trump barks and belittles and bellows,
he ends up with strange and revolting bedfellows,
who think, 'cause they're white they can fight and can ****
which, with horror, we witnessed there in Charlottesville.

When Donald Trump won't quickly, strongly condemn
the racists and nazis, he's standing with them.
When he's vague, non-committal, or responds with delay,
he's disgusting, pathetic, and as worthless as they.