listening to the news
that brings disasters of all kind
with reliable regularity
     thanks to our sensationalist media

you may be tempted to believe
the world is going straight to hell
apocalypse is near & unavoidable

     whether by asteroids or comets
     the Russians or Americans or Chinese
    
fact is that rising ocean levels
are much more dangerous than changing presidents
flooding the fields and homes of millions
     in the lower lying islands of the South Pacific

the cold oblivion of the powerful
about the real people’s tragedies
is what I find most missing
in the so-called news

listening to Benny Goodman’s smooth version of  ”Tiger Rag”
composed at a time when tigers where not yet an endangered species
     when soldiers were dying in World War I
     and would die again soon after Benny first recorded it in the 1930s
    
I wonder how it is that music can be so divorced from death

maybe because, for the US, wars have always been fought elsewhere,
    except for the Civil War - an issue that still occupies two research institutes

distance seems to create heroes more easily
     even though they are not aware of it
music helps to maintain the division between here and there

only when the draped coffins are unloaded
     those two worlds converge
and our sense of uninvolvement is exploded

in our daily haste to not miss
sales, appointments, buses, flights,
we tend to overlook the world
that gives us all these options

the awe-inspiring heights of our mountains
frightening majesty of our seas
powerful forests breathing life
the elegance of animals
a pleasant view of cultivated land
even the buzzing habitat of cities

we may be only a small part of seven human billions
yet it behooves us well to be aware
     and celebrate
the fragile beauty of our world

we know
     we will die one day
but we don't believe it

every day
we say goodbye
     to lovers, family, and friends
expecting we shall see them
     safe and sound
again within short time

we rarely do think why
our trust that there ‘s no crime
     attack or accident
     exploding our expectations
is strong enough to carry us
     above all fears and hesitations
lets us assume that our parting
     will always be just for a while

it may well be the sheer necessity
     of positive assumptions
is what allows us to survive
      to navigate our lives
and to maintain a parting smile on our lips
born from the firm
      possibly desperate belief
our departures never are
      as yet
forever

when words turn into worlds
strange things happen

paragraphs bend into globes
continents grow out of sentences
cultures start talking to each other
   clinging to colons and dashes

when words become worlds
these worlds create grammar
and modestly submit to its rules

whereas the real world of worlds
grows ungrammatically
and is more colorful

if you don’t like the way things are
either change them
or change your attitude