A gentleman with a fetish (This most, if not all, of us share) For Shangri La, was empathizing With those bayoneted over there By few others, like them, like us,

Leaving a question in my mouth: Why are distant horrors easier To mourn than those closer at hand?

Death is effortless, you know. Last night is dead with The years before it When Big Sea came with its Bellyful of grinning sharks.

Then the camps before that. Herr Kommandants frog marching Through the alleys of Baghdad, Beslan, Birmingham, Saigon, Soweto, Siberia, Srinagar, of course of course Graca And Ashwitch, waving their cloaked Flags of boneskull, numbskull, skullbuggery.

Living you ask? Living is simple boss. Living is straining against the leash Bow! Bow! Booowe! Bowbowing against Falling as the radium green lotus Heart opens, opens in the chest.

Waking up years after A night of winter rain I see you among

The shadowy shapes of birds Wheeling against the backlit sky Still awkwardly trying to fly away.