stop listening to public radio,
i told my dear friend this morning
stop listening to our favorite brilliant, left-winged commentators
expound
on the sad state of our world’s affairs
while a new war blisters on the horizon
as the collateral damage from the current unfinished
un-win able war lies fresh on our tongues…
stop listening to the old demons
grumbling of injustice or banishment from an old beloved job
you thought you’d “retire” from,
i tell myself this morning
tired and at an age where one’s life should be winding down
i prepare to attend a “job fair” to try and find work again
(at 60)
in order to survive a few more years in this unfamiliar tarnished world…
stop expecting compassion where there is little
stop expecting understanding, where there is none…
facing new war on our already troubled horizon,
we will wake up tomorrow in our country
watchful, as once again
its back is turning—fangs bared—-siphoning off countless billions
while turning on the needs of its own…
as the tides wash over us daily with news of more war, more injustice and
endless greed
our internal battles are best left behind
silence the radios in our heads
that bleat on endlessly of our own scarred battlefields
filled with newsreels of those we’ve loved and lost
old stories and painful news of new cancers now in those we hold dear…
yes, blinding stories of injustice
and lack of compassion
bury them deep, like old bones
focus now on survival and simple things–
like making the rent
(at 60)…
this is the stage where
we can only look ahead
in hopes
that a sweet, swift and peaceful
inevitable
life’s end
will spare us from having to face
this future’s unraveling…
WOW!!!! Love the new format! Love the Poem! Love the font size! Love the Pic! And most decidedly love you! M&T and bodhi Dog
I found your blog via Adgita Diaries and your sweet comment yesterday. This poem is an anthem to our age (boomers that we are) in years and our age that we live in. How are we to go forward in the years left to us? We, who have struggled and fought so long against what we saw as unjust and wake up in the present day wanting to (still) shake our fist at the world? Do we keep listening to the world and national news and do what we can (write letters, attend rallies, vote) or do we find a way to wind down and leave that world? The young will pick up the mantel, they always have.
you did it again….o boy…just by chance I happened to open this ‘devils machine’ for the second time today, once , in the morning, is usually enough for me…and here was this poem…and damn, if THE SUN can’t print this…shit, it makes me mad…but I know I know, thanks , thanks a lot for writing this and sending it and I hope you sent it out to a lot of your friends…we need this now…xd.
David, not being printed by the Sun is an honor, secondly only to the two sentence ‘loser’ rejections from the New Yorker! LOL Linda is truly an amazing poet that transcends the ‘pressing bruises’ genre of the SUN.