2011

[rmorgan]

Lady Gaga was just starting out.
Kissinger was getting old, with a free pass
For his sins. Humanitarians were going strong
Dylan turned 70. The Beatles
Were not yet forgotten. You, me and she
We celebrated Leonard and Jacques Brel
And we knew all along
The corporates were plundering the earth to hell.

The world was still alive. We'd lived through
The fascist lies. The Jews had just survived.
Gypsies were on the run. First Folks were driven
By heartbreak into the arms of suicide
In US heartlands and the Amazon
The dawn of human life
Had broken and the sorrow had begun.

The nomad tribes were dying out
Their wells were running dry. Erratic rains
Were falling and were no longer praised.
The warrior men
Sold their bodies for poison waters
The women made their living
From the cutting of their daughters.

We find shelter in the smallest spaces
In the darkness and abandoned places
Upon our landscapes, beneath peculiar skies
New rituals we practised. New identities, we realized.
This was the starting place - and we would be surprised
If all those out there fighting
Left us alone. If we survived.

But we were free in the shelter of our nights
In the one remaining chance to make something of our lives
In all that you were born and had always wished to be
I wish for you to be. More than the fate
Of rivers, of the species. The future is a sea
Of black and shade and light. I see
The future in your eyes:
We grow old as we become more bright.