Put it Down

I guess we all have to live our
own lives, make mistakes—
fall on our face, we must
learn our own way and can’t
or won’t always be taught another…

We come from where we come
from, some are book smart or dumb,
others with street savvy, others can
ride a horse, know what to do in
a barn—

Still others work on a farm, and the
city slicker like me’d be lost
outside the city… until found.

Like a Frost poem from long ago
we are called to what we’re called to,
I hope you find your way from ground
to air to ground, over rivers and snow;
the journey that’s life takes what it takes,

and gives when it can, evil fighting good
and vice versa, Tao Te Ching still yelling
out “you cannot change the world,” and yet
we try and we try and we try,
‘cause that’s our job.

The pacifist calls the military man,
asks does he want a show, because
“I dream to love you guys anyway,
your choice not being mine, but maybe
by us mixing we’ll learn from each other—
be fine.”

And the comic visits military bases,
and the world looks more and more like
the charter from the United Nations…

The U.S. finally gives up its Covert Operations
because you can’t rightly shake hands
with your brother, steal the cash from
his underwear drawer, and be ethical
all at once.

Something’s gotta give, and maybe
it’s that military boy after the show,
having heard some words he liked
He wonders why Dad never told
him so…

Life, what a mess—sometimes to figure
it out you gotta be Elliot Ness, Wyatt Earp
or Lao Tsu—

Someone knew but shhh! The FBI is listening,
the good part of the CIA taking notes,
the bad being forgotten as Obama with heart

Welcomes the Cubans back to the dinner
table. It’s not about agreeing all the time.

Tolerance good enough and that brings
in Mary:

“Enough is as good as a feast.”

Well then, ready to drop your gun?

Put it down, next to mine, let’s you
and I get a pad out and make a schedule
for today—

16 hours to kill—

Scratch that. 16 hours without killing,
without assaulting, without something
to get in the way of contented sleep,
maybe go for a walk and read, do some work,
housework is fine.

Force times distance keeping us
six feet above the end, so that we
can be friends and sleep.

see ya in 8