The Inertia of Despair

Wars
Endless Wars
Fires burning the sky
Fields failing without rain
Poisoned by farmers
Hunger
Disease
Millions flee horrors
From the South
North
East to West
From all directions of the compass
Seeking safety
Hoping for something better__
The news only blurbs of the chaos
Talking heads of the media spread
Rumors
Lies
Untruths
Thirty seconds of blather not enough
For a lost nation
With fifteen second attention span
Talking heads show paths to nowhere
This is not a world
For young or old or in-between
I know
I have been many places
Many places called home
Far from New England
My first home on Falmouth Foreside, Maine
Across from Portland
So long ago__
Woody Allen said he can deal with the despair
It's the hope I can't take__
An old friend called the other day.
Hope bled out from his life
Fearful of the predicted doom spin
Scared of the what's next
The future__
And like everyone in this world
I is alone
Sometimes
Like now___
I have nothing
No wealth
I'm not driving a GTO
I'm not rich
I live far from my family
My children and grandchildren In Thailand
On the other side of the world
An odyssey away__
Here
Family too
My old friends are old
We don't converse
Not even a text
Then again
I died three years ago
They are hermits
As am I
Sometimes
But always
Lazarus II
Has the future
I see what's next
I reach out
I take care of what
I can
I help who I can
An old hippie
I believe in joy
A child's smile
An autumn rose
Afore an Adelphi Street brownstone
Sniff
A fragance from long ago in Paris
The Parch de Bagatelle
At dawn
Forty years ago__
Yesterday
The scent of the sea
Through the open window
Of Francis' Saab
On the BQE
Heading to the Rockaways
For a swim
Maybe the last for the year__
This evening
Sitting on a chair on the sidewalk on Myrtle Avenue
Sipping a cappucino from Larina
Jets overhead
Soon to land at La Guardia
Cars east and west
The neighborhood
Afoot
Friends hello one another
Clinton Hill
A community
Of People
Of life
Hope for the better
Poor
No rich here
Not really rich
We got what we got
Enough?
Never enough
Only what we got__
I am where I am
We are where we are
Clinton Hill
With the sunset to the West
Bouncing gold off the clouds
Onto the yellow leaves
To the East
The sky running dark as cobalt
A single star gleams
Through the New York City light dome
Venus
The eternal Evening Star__
I phone friends on my cell
No one answers my call
I leave a message
Voice mail
Three words
We are us
Then sit back and sigh_
Whatever is coming is coming
And we will live
Every second
Of every minute
Of every hour
No matter what is coming Or what has gone Every second Of every minute Of every hour Of every day__
Unlike Woody Allen
We still have more hope
Than despair for tomorrow
Hope for whatever comes our way
The good the bad and the in-between
Get your motors running
Live for today and the tomorrows
Every day and every night
Time is on our side__
ps We are coming for your children___