One Wish
If the Genie says
'you are not allowed to wish it away
that wish I cannot grant'
then I would say
'Then, this is my wish:
Let it pound us
and mash us
and butter us
into a slower
more meaningful
and more contemplative
way of life.
Let its
harmfulness
make us
less harmful to our world
Let it
Rehumanize us."
This Time
We need to do
THIS TIME
what we should have done
LAST TIME
and the time before that
and the time before that
and the time before that
and the time before that
and the time
and the time
and the time
and the time
and the time
before that
when we first noticed
what needed to be done
There were fewer of us then
and we could have simply said
'King, why do you hoard?
why do you paint your palace gold
instead of sharing?
Don't you know that people
YOUR people
need what you hoard
and would love and honor and respect you
and follow you to the gates of Hell
if you would but share it?
Don't you know that this very day
in YOUR kingdom
a father sold his eldest daughter to the slave traders
in order to feed his younglings?
Is the gold you slap on your columns
more important than that?
What kind of king are you,
who is less in spirit than the common beggar
who shares some of his scraps with a cat?'
We knew then
that the thing to do
was to send the king off
and all who stood by him
with five days' rations
and said
'Let's be done with kings, now and forever.
Without them, we have more than enough
and can look after each other
and see that none of us go without.
Surely, our children, and our descendants
a thousand years hence
will be grateful for what we have done today.'
Though the task has become greater and more complicated
by orders of magnitude
it is still the same task
and it still needs to be done
THIS TIME
Cleanse Thoroughly
Cleanse Thoroughly
It's not enough to wash our hands
we need to wash our minds as well
mine has a virus of jealousy
What's yours?
We need to wash our ears
I was deaf to another's pain
pain that I caused
time to clean
and hear better next time
We need to wash this world
we have dirtied it
smudged it with coarseness
cruelty and conceit
painted it brown with
uncaringness
Wash this world
wash this world
The virus
is in our way of life
which we have twisted into
a way of death
and through that corridor
it sauntered in
