The Beat Goes On ...

No more will I hear the hirsute hippie say

I was blasted out in Bali, ripped, man,

all the way. Beautiful spiritual Bali

in Hindu funerary petals where students', soccer players',

surfers' and indigenous' scorched skin and blood

has spilled onto the killing fields of Kuta,

today a crippled paradise. Bliss only comes in

pethidine for pain of wounded damaged patients

whose island holidays have ended by seditious acts,

intolerant, insane. Last year, it was imploding

plundered towers in dusty grey rubble of corporate America.

An assault that hit the world.

War and bloodied pieces

More wars. The conflict never

ceases, never has.

I want to say it will.

In karmic havens of Kashmir

or Katmandu, and in Kosova,

Kandahar or Barcelona,

Belfast and Baghdad; Beirut

or Tel Aviv and other terrorist

plagued places of ruin and sorrow.

The world is overflowing with

frightened refugees; millions flee

to save their souls from mass destruction

of civilians - invasions on innocent human

lives by those who would control

our rationalist civilised times.

War and bloodied pieces. More wailing

wars and woes. The conflict

never ceases, never has.

I want to say it will.

Effervescent bubbles fermenting too long

explode. Slaughter and evil thrives. No matter

where you look in Scriptural or Koranic texts,

in everybody's holy book. Today, I read

that since World War II the USA has bombed

twenty-one countries, causing death

and destruction in foreign lands. We need

to know if this is true. Just exactly

which road is the safest way ahead?

War and bloodied pieces. More wailing

wars and woes. The conflict

never ceases, never has.

I want to say it will.

~~~