#28 - painting the whole world into a corner (poem for a friend)

28^th January, 2020

28

painting whole world into a corner

poem for a friend

I know you’re in a hot place 

frays the nerves

lately I’ve had time to think

what if it all burns down (?)

this is getting to be more than theory

there are big things wrong with this world

I’m disappointed with it too  

its wrong direction, but which one?

it’s true some few of the victims are missed

and we should sing for them too

thanks for the reminder!

I think of the Swabians in Yugoslavia

all that they suffered won’t make Nazis nice

the laughter of boots in blood, smashed bones

and so they sing along, tomorrow belonging

but now we know how this goes

the ripped off feeling, the ‘I’m ignored’

the ‘what about my tribe, skin’

as if justice were the enemy

argument all at me

at a certain age perhaps a feeling

left behind, as all will be

I get it too – I didn’t win the Nobel Prize

they’ll never make me king

a pattern? do you think there could be?

of privilege and lack

you’ve seen both ideas

been given them to live

and love has disappointed you

we disappoint ourselves sometimes

the whole world’s too hot now

I blame myself, don’t you?

it’s all gone wrong – why didn’t I do more?

our cause must be to save the world

it’s simple – you’ve got kids, you can see it

a cliché only gets more true

but bitter mind’s a tangle

it takes perspective down

the ironies of a resentment

drag us a long way under

fear of abstraction for fuel

and we can still wake up

have you no admiration now?

but we have still for you

still Chopin in your paws

a wagon wheel, a coke

some setting alight

and let’s go watch cartoons

what guilty innocents we were

when everything was new!

to advocate for the voiceless

that is a noble thing to do

but never makes the two wrongs right

who is it is not heard? remind me

some dark force whispered in your ear

open your eyes – brush the smoke away

a crime against humanity sits smug in the dock

‘I won’t recognize such a court’

‘not properly constituted’

wake up – you’re smart, you see through that

these little pockets of ‘bad behaviour’

if unfought, indulged

they become a movement, a regime

we’ve seen it and we see it now

this painting the world into a corner

where does it leave us?

no prize for a stairway to heaven these days

still there are some teddy bears

no need to choke on your own vomit

if there’s still some Hendrix in you 

senryu

no need to choke

on your own vomit

if there’s still some Hendrix in you