Reportback on yesterday's protest "Let Marjah Live"

At yesterday's demo, I was having trouble coming up with chants that fit the mouthful "Afghanistan" into any kind of beat. So I sort-of accidentally wrote this poem. I call it "What rhymes with Aghanistan?"

Afghanistan, Afghanistan
more lies about the Taliban
Obama's on TV again
oh, Afghanistan.

Quick- what rhymes with civilian population?
Complete and total devastation
(Oh, Afghanistan)

What's a pipeline doing running
right through the middle of our foreign policy?
Don't know? (really?)
Well, just ask any Afghan citizen
(Oh, Afghanistan, Afghanistan)

They're selling war at every convience store
and all the prices just went up again.
Oh, Afghanistan
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Ok, all humor aside, my heart goes out to those families in Marjah. Thanks everybody who made it out to the protest. Now we build for March 20th!

Make New Friends

For that dam-breaking sense
of acceptance
the SURGE of interest
in a world outside ourselves so big
it holds everything as one

I've come to learn what you can teach me
and to show you these things that I've seen
to tell you the story in this, the only way that I know how
and to deliver the message:
that you are not alone, my friend
you have allies in the hear and now

Let us begin, let us discover
what we can about ourselves and each other
because together we are greater
than any # of our individual weaknesses combined

Let's find some new way to communicate
that other's can emulate for years to come
what we created
carried on

Because our voices carry us forwards
and yours soars
I heard you from across this concrete jungle
like a lion roars
It brought me striding through
new open doors to find you
to contribute to the collective mind
that you remind me I belong to
A choir of sorts
and maybe not angels, but agents of change
and I don't think that's so small a charge
when you consider the great pain of living
the daily overcoming that it is to be alive
to choose this path, gladly, and say

"It was nice to meet you"
Which simply does not convey my excitement,
my tongue-tied desire to begin, so until next time
my friend, until next time.

It was sort of a crash and burn scenario

        Let me tell ya, when you hit a
        brick wall it doesn't always
        stop you-it's just in the way.

I was HIGH as a kite, and good thing too
cause it was all that        lying        
                              under      -inner-
L.A.N.G.U.A.G.E.
mumbo-jumbo, you know?
critical thinking questions
-thick stuff-

I was paying my most adamant attention, thinking
I am thi--s close to shutting  the whole
                                              thing
(so don't you dare me)          down.
I wasn't going to be affected
by the weather anymore
I was in for

                                   a lesson, alright.

Beautiful World

I have lived my life in fear and found no solace there. I learned that even with your head in the sand your other end is left blowing defenselessly in the wind. I have also learned since not to go marching into darkness just to prove you're not afraid of things you should be. I'm on guard with good reasons these days (knowing the worth of my own dead weight) and I must balance my values of freedom and dignity on a regular basis. Minneapolis, war-front that I love.
I have learned the importance of community, having support systems in place to watch our own backs and back alleyways. And the 1st use for society is survival. Skills shared openly and resources for everyone not owned, sold or traded. Or at least I imagine it could be like this. I've learned the power of our dreams and local politics.
And I have learned to be patient, and when not to wait around for permission to change because change is inevitable and the only question is direction, and yes, I am here today with an agenda. I wanna set it right and see what happens. I want to get it right, and give it some room. A little sunlight and attention to bask in, to bloom.
See what becomes of creation when you give peace a chance. A plot of land in a shared space under my care can flourish. We are so rich when we work together and for everyone. We are so rich when we work together and for everyone that it bares repeating. I go on, believing this and then making it come true. And I've seen it work and so have you. And isn't it a more beautiful world when we do?

The truth was...

The truth was her hey day
wasn't so great.
Got a lot a minor
details piling up and
going hungry's never coming
into style. Meanwhile,
the clock is counting off
sounding off like a line of
fresh soldiers to the front.
Ready for glory and settling
for a gun.

Generations to come

My hopeless parents
put your faith in me, for I
have abandoned you, and your ways
I watched you fall long before
I ever learned the word for
Revolution.

To the generations to come: wash
the lie from my stories
and pardon my ignorant blunders- the ones
I learned from the hopeless
long before you ever found
the debt we left you in.

Life without TV

There is a triangular park across the street from my apartment window and in the summer, sometimes, the homeless sleep on the benches-all out in the open-and I watch them, and they watch me. Or sometimes it's just the skaters and their film crew. The occasional strolling mom and toddler pair, there to play in a patch of grass in broad daylight.

Its winter now, so the statue wears a shaggy white coat like pigeon droppings gotten out of hand. The boot prints pave the many ways already taken. Put them together to make a dance. My favorite tree is stark and frigid, naked in the winter cold, but deep below the earth she is preserving. We dream of spring together and we are making plans. I admire her practical use of time, but she has so much more of it. I wish her luck.

I watch the park from this vantage point and think we are all lucky to be alive. The cars go by. The day draws to a close and it's too cold to go out, so it sit here and contemplate the park instead.
Beats re-runs of Seinfeld, anyway.