Babylon's Children

Eins

Bifrost
24 x 36"
Acrylic on canvas

Awake

There is the crazy of animal nature
The beast at one with self and time
Then there is the wild wind
Self awareness warily sips its wine
What difference between self and all?
Knowledge of both affects the whole
Unanswered questions shift the grass
Fear of the unknown takes its toll
Hunger is primal, understood
Why should we not ask why?
And our gods, silent, stare from our heads
Immortally stunned that we fear to die.
(9/2/10)

This is actually a 4-chord-structure song I wrote in about 20 minutes today...

Never Go Quietly

Amidst all of the media
That pop encyclopedia
And the stuffed suits in Washington
On down to the local fun
Do you feel down and out?
Are you getting drowned out?

Hey don’t say this is only me
Don’t tell me that nothing’s free
Every one of you has a voice
Every last one of us has a choice

Complexity is the Devil’s song
Make you forget where it all went wrong
Caught in the gears of the big machine
Forced to give up on coming clean
Suddenly everyone cheats at the starting line
‘Til the race is won by no one

Hey don’t say this is only me
Don’t tell me that nothing’s free
Every one of you has a voice
Every last one of us has a choice

Not too hard when we look away
To think we can wait it out for another day
So easy to heap up the anger
Roll down the window and hoist up the finger
Suddenly the mirror shows familiar
What is this? Am I part of the picture?

Hey don’t say this is only me
Don’t tell me that nothing’s free
Every one of you has a voice
Every last one of us has a choice
I will raise up my words
Every syllable will be heard
Make the sun rise at midnight
I will not go quietly, never go quietly

(8/11/10)

Core
16 x 20"
Acrylic on canvas

Spared all consequence
Of youthful indiscretions
Oft forgotten in
the maelstrom of repressions
True, a bone broken still hurts
But true also, it could be worse
A rejected view, that
And each time presented, I spat
For pain long endured
Has a curious effect
creating even in the best
A profound defect
Of ungraciousness
Disdainfulness
Loss of perspective
Severed from collective
And so self-preservation
Without reservation
replaces the better side
like the rising tide
but given time
the moon of despair passes
the poison recedes
and with it, the selfish need
to reject the source
of all things
good and bad
that’s all we have.
(5/12/10)