The new necessity

Well, I suppose, if you look at it like that...
if we forget the buildings and the clothes and the cars
and the shit and the grease and the stardom and the stars
and all of the sticky dung stuck in
adobe walls,
we will remember
that there are an estimated 6.77 billion loose cannons
running around.

But you've got to love the whole thing
even if it folds in on itself.
Everybody's got a plan, man.
It's the new water,
food,
shelter.
The new necessity.
They've all got big plans for the commonwealth
and they’re all so goddamn big that that all they need is hope.

When in doubt about the ones you love
and the ones that love you,
remember that the generals massacring
indigenous populations,
were humans
just the same as the natives,
although one might not have thought so
of the other.
For the believers – could I see what you saw?

Was it
the new necessity,
aging wood on
young flame?

Was it turtle dove pain
on some smoky wing
bound to note?
note tied to foot?

Impoverished children
smiling
while my friends cry at the end of cheesy movies.
The pope wearing Bono's sunglasses (totally cool)
while bums and street preachers spout wisdom,
High divorce rates while
student teacher relationships make headline news.
I loved each and every one of you from all the way
in the back of the class.

Celebrity drama beating backwards blood
into the hearts of jaded punks in faded jeans.
Counterculture eroticism,
symbiotic polarization,
hope on a rope
through the uncertain showers of federal/moral prison,
the new necessity.