Earth Abides

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Earth Abides

The sound of robins singing

In the clear fresh air of spring

Births memories of simpler times

When we were free to breathe

The earth abides

We are but a whisper

Lost in a dream

And I am but a dreamer

Drifting with the breeze

To wolves and coyotes

To the rattlesnake and crow

The days of wonder have arrived

The day the humans stayed home

We were the stewards of this earth

But we failed to hold the line

Now we face the woeful consequence

Of pretending we’re divine

The earth abides

The sun still shines

Life blooms wildlife thrives

As we await the waning tide

Lost Souls

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Lost Souls

Wandering without direction

Faces drawn in thin lines

Gaunt shallow undefined

Echoes of emotion

Hollow

They stand where people used to be

They take our places in line

They walk in our paces

Unseeing eyes

Blind

Who are these lost souls? 

Were they ever alive? 

Did they speak in our voices?

Were we of the same tribe? 

Pray for the lost

Pray we will find

Meaning purpose devotion

Give us back our lives

 

Inward

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Inward

Eyes turn inward

Gaze turns back

Scattered images attack

My inner consciousness

Like a flickering strobe

A kid from Nashville who thanked me

With a Yankees shirt and a wry grin

A ride on the Staten Island Ferry

To the shining statue of hope

A woman on the road in Chicago

Who slipped me a twenty on the sly

A ride from hell in the Shenandoah Valley

A whisper in a crowded auditorium

Eyes turn inward

Gaze turns back

So many fleeting memories

Floating in and out of mind

Is this the fluff and stuff of dreams

Or the darkness gaining hold?

Misinformation Kills

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Misinformation Kills

In normal times telling lies

To promote your cause

Is par for the course

Like clouds in the sky

As easy as pie

In normal times no one cares

A page in the book

A glance not a look

A walk not a ride

We brush it aside

But these are not normal times

The stakes are too high

Someone might die

So say what you will

Misinformation kills

We Will Rise Again

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After the Fall

We will rise again after the fall

We will strike down the border wall

That protected us from imagined beasts

And find new unity west and east

To face our common foes

United we will make a stand

Man and woman hand in hand

Together we will gather

To shed our common tears

Together we will march

To face our common fears

We will rise again after the fall

We will sing and dance and raise the call

No longer will we cower and hide

We are of the earth and earth abides

Despite our common woes

The Test

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The Test

How long can we last before the walls

Begin to fold in on us?

How long before our minds wobble

Shake and take flight?

Some can endure this endless state

Of nothing but the same

This existential perpetuity

This flight of the flightless dodo

This song of endless woe

Round and round she goes

Like water down the drain

Like weeks of endless rain

Like enticing the insane

Just to feel alive

We are puppets in a wooden chest

Long forgotten put to rest

Nothing beating in our breasts

Trying hard to do our best

And falling like an empty nest

Failing the final test

How long can we last?

The Fall of Privacy

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The Fall of Privacy

The pandemic experts agree

For the good of all

(and the wealth of some)

They must follow every movement

All the time everywhere

Your walk to the drugstore

Your time at the fair

The people you encounter

Who breathe the same air

It all makes sense

In a fight for our lives

But our freedoms once taken

May never revive

In a battle for survival

Privacy is the first casualty

The Second Wave

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The Second Wave

When history is written it will record

We grew too confident

We dropped our guard

We had the virus on the run

Kept our distance stayed at home

Till the sun came shining

And the days looked bright

And we celebrated the close

Of a long goodnight

So when it comes back

To reap sweet revenge

What will we do then? 

Fight back or give in?

We’ll fight of course

And we’ll fight again

That’s who we are

And always have been

We’ll fight and fight and fight

Till at last we win

Contact Tracing

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Contact Tracing

He was a hands on kind of guy

He liked to look you in the eye

Grab you by your shoulder

Take and shake your hand

Always wore a smile

Had a lot of things to say

Too old to change his ways

When the great shadow came

And it seemed like it might stay

He shook hands with his neighbor

Who took it home to his kid

Who spent an hour in the park

Where he played with his friend

Who took it home to his father

Where his Uncle Mac gave him a hug

And passed it to his mother

Who forgot about the virus

When she walked down to the store

Where the clerk had a word

And passed it to her friend

Who helped your grandson patch a tire

Who passed it on to you

How could such a thing happen

When we’ve taken all precautions?

We are only as strong

As our weakest bond

The Highest Price

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The Highest Price

Hurricanes twisters pandemics depression

An infestation of rats and mice

It’s a hard hard truth and it’s cold as ice

The poor folks pay the highest price

From the Bronx to Philadelphia

Baton Rouge to Atlanta West

Atlantic City to Detroit

Old Seattle to Miami vice

No matter how you toss the dice

The poor folks pay the highest price

From the race riots in ‘65

The great Chicago fire

Falling bridges collapsing towers

So much tragedy so much loss

The poor folks pay the highest cost

The color of wealth is white and yellow

The color of want is black and brown

When hard times hit and knock us down

They hit hardest on the poor side of town

Dying for Democracy (Wisconsin)

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Dying for Democracy (Wisconsin)

Determined people stand in line

Six feet apart hours on hours

Wearing masks and gloves

In rain and wind and cold

To cast their votes and

Speak their rightful minds

What price democracy? 

The highest law in the land

The justices supreme decree

Anyone who votes this day

Must gamble with their lives

What do you say?

Do you want to die today?

How much does it mean to you?

One last vote for a dying democracy

One last stand before the end

One last salute to duty

Honor and the American way

South Dakota

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South Dakota

Centuries ago invading armies threatened

Their existence with poisoned blankets

Smallpox infested gifts of the civilized tribe

The Lakota survived

In the great westward expansion

Blue coats fought native warriors

Outgunned and outnumbered

To a standstill dividing the tribes

Forced them to live on reservations

Sent them to Indian schools where

They cut out your tongues

And buried them in history books

The Lakota survived

They massacred the buffalo

To the edge of extinction

Destroyed the Lakota way of life

In every way they could

The Lakota survived

Now the white man’s government

Threatens the tribes once again

With their determined ignorance

Discarding science and medicine

Condemning all to suffer the ravages

Of a deadly pandemic

The Lakota will survive

But at what cost?

How many lives will be lost

To the white man’s folly?

Bury the Dead

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Bury the Dead

Mass graves in Central Park

Cremated remains in Lake Pontchartrain

A tribute to the heroes the survivors

And the families of the dead

The dead themselves no longer care

Pray they have passed to a better place

Though in truth we know not where

How many died in vain?

How many deaths ordained?

We must all wonder though

Few will voice the words

We let it rest

Leave it for another day

We cry we mourn we pray

But we will not ask

How many died in vain

Until the dead are put away

Until the day after we ask

Where do we bury the dead?

Silence

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Silence

Broadway at midnight in the midst

Of the great pandemic

New Orleans’ French Quarter to Jackson Square

Columbus Avenue in San Francisco

Grant Park Chicago on a Sunday afternoon

There is a silence that bears the weight

Of a planet’s worried souls

There is a sorrow deeper than the depths

Of the human heart

From stadiums in the great cities

To small town bars and restaurants

A silence descends like a curtain on

The darkest night

None dare speak its name

None dare summon its power

Take cover and hide

Quiet do not breathe

We know its name

But we will not speak it aloud

Not now

Not ever

The Great Cleansing

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The Great Cleansing

The heavens opened up her gates

And down poured the rains of Eden

To wash away all our depravities

And clean our very souls

A hundred million voices sang as one

Forgive us our misdeeds and let us live again

For we have learned our lessons and

We have paid a price in sorrow far

Greater than the seven salted seas

And the rains came down and thunder

Cracked the eternal sky

Until alas there were no more tears to cry

And every mother’s son and daughter

Knew we would survive

To breathe in joy and sorrow one more time

And everyone alive swore

On all that is sacred and pure

This time we will do it right

This time we will care for the poor

This time we will lift humanity over wealth

This time we will embrace our role

As caretakers of the earth

This time we swear

One

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One

One world one planet one path

To survive the great pandemic

And resume the human race

We’ve lived through a Great Depression

Pestilence famine plague recessions

We’ll live through this and more

And rise in a state of grace

The lesson of this tragic tale

Is simple as true things are

We are not alone on this journey

We are one of infinite stars

The Lakota in their wisdom say

We are all of us related

We share the same ancestry

And to the same end we’re fated

The motto of this nation is

From the many we are one

If we fail to heed this message

As a species we are done

The Missing Moments

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The Missing Moments

Life is a series of moments

Moments we embrace and treasure

Moments that give us pleasure

Like a precious stone to a jeweler

An image to a photographer

A revelation to the faithful

We gather our moments together

Store them in the attics of our brains

Sort them out and gaze at them

When times get rough or

We get sentimental

We like to think our moments

Belong to us like photos in a box

That can never be taken away

But time and circumstance

Like thieves in the night

Can strip them from us

Bury them or twist them till

We no longer recognize

Time and circumstance are stealing

Moments now that never happened

Welcoming a newborn babe

Into a bright and loving world

Catching a foul ball with a bare hand

Sharing a sunset in the sunset of our lives

Finding comfort in a crowd of friends

Witnessing nature in her naked glory

Basking in the warmth of family

Communing with precious friends

All the moments that might have been

Vanish with the poisoned wind

May we all create new moments

But we cannot have them back again

Normalizing the Abnormal

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Normalizing the Abnormal

Total transformation

In the flicker of flight

A dance in the darkness

With the shadows of doom

Flames jumping in glimmering light

Horrors receding on a fiendish night

A new way of living our daily lives

No bars no pubs no congregations

We exist now in isolation

A nation of loners is not a nation

We live in perpetual segregation

We walk our chosen paths alone

Observe from a distance

Converse on the phone

Interact on social media

Forever at home

We cease to be what we’ve always been

This new normal is foreign and strange

Without impulse or freedom of being

Like a marriage that’s been arranged

Six Feet Under

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Six Feet Under

By order of the government

We live in a world where

Handshakes are forbidden

Where breath can kill

Where standing too close

Could be your last act

Of defiance

No hugs no kisses

No bump of the fist

No slap on the back

No whispers in the ear

No one wants to follow the rules

But defiance now is a game of fools

Don’t get too close

Don’t huddle together

No sharing space

No matter the weather

Do not falter and do not wonder

Six feet apart or six feet under

Destination Destiny

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Destination Destiny

During the nation’s bicentennial

I lived on Manhattan Island

Busted my ass to make it there

Had my moment on the stage

Saw my name in the Village Voice

If not on the marquee lights

I wanted to make New York my home

My base of operations

A place to lay my head and toil

The center of the creative universe

The cradle of art and imagination

I remember landing in Grand Central Station

Alone with my thoughts my destination

A script in my bag dreams in my head

I wanted to belong be found be read

In the end the great metropolis refused

To share my welcome

Tossed me out like an old pair of boots

To live with the masses was not my destiny

Or was it random chance

I always wondered what might have been

What could have would have happened

Would I have thrived?

Would I be dead?

More than ever I wonder now

Where my first love might have led

The Cleansing

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The Cleansing

Toxins spread across the land

Poison seeping from poisoned minds

Wretched souls and misery

Suffering the terror of need

By the hands of greed

And the waters come down

Like a rumbling train

From a broken sky springs

A cleansing rain

A thundering storm like the gods of war

Batten down the hatches

Bar the doors

Put our hands together and pray

Wash away the tears

Wash away the rage

Wash away the horror

Wash away the waste

Let us be whole again

Give us good health

Let us have joy again

Let us feel well

When the whole world is in such sorrow

Let it rain today until tomorrow

The Chase

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The Chase

No more dawdling

No more spinning the top

No more jogging around the bend

This is where it stops

This is where the bullshit ends

You’ve been yanking my chain too long

Even when you’re right you’re wrong

People are sick and tired and dying

While you’re still singing the same old song

Now you want a war with Iran

Now you want a new war on drugs

Go home to your beloved Mar a Lago

Go bury your head in the Florida sand

Play a round of golf and make your stand

Spend time tweeting on your mobile phone

Just go your way and leave us all alone

Coronavirus Miracles

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Coronavirus Miracles

A decline in violent crimes

A spirit of giving spreads

People rally to desperate needs

Masks from upholstery

Hospitals in city centers

Hotels for the homeless

Debt forgiveness

Prepared meals

Tent cities

A million acts of generosity

For every brutal tragic death

Ordinary people understand

We’re all in this together

So why not lend a hand

The miracles of kindness

born of deadly despair

Give testament to all

who came before us

all who come after

and all who care

Humanity will endure

Humanity will survive

Humanity will prevail

In these dark and trying times

Fools Parade

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Fools Parade

A congregation in Louisiana

Praise the lord and pass the pestilence

Pandemic parties in Miami

Dancing to the edge of time

A Christian university in Georgia

Class in session stand in line

The fools parade is never canceled

The celebration must go on

Drink and dance the night away

Party to the break of dawn

Bars and taverns business booming

What could possibly go wrong?

They’ll have a thousand poor excuses

When the hammer comes down strong

Incompetence Kills

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Incompetence Kills

People were fed up I understand

Throw out the old try a new brand

They’re all the same the old folks said

Now the old folks are sick in bed

You delivered a message loud and clear

They played to your hopes

He played to your fear

Now what do you think

When you’re calm and still?

You could not have known

Incompetence kills

We slipped by for three long years

The market soared

The end drew near

When the pandemic came

We wrote our wills

We should have known

Incompetence kills

He saw it coming and turned away

He said don’t worry we’ll be okay

We won’t all survive but most of us will

How were we to know?

Incompetence kills

He fought for the rich

Spat on the poor

On the bright side

He never started a war

Just a miserable leader

Grist for the mill

But we never suspected

Incompetence kills