LOVERS
in these late breaking days
rebellion has become
the most ragged of fashion statements
the banality of it symbolized
by certain
hairstyles, cigarettes, rock bands, automobiles
a saltpeter-fueled revolution
defiance institutionalized
from our home entertainment centers
we see, we hear,
the latest corporate anti-heroes
as they sun themselves
along the banks of the mainstream
mega stars
idolized by thundering herds
spilling forth
from the nearest shopping mall
ask me and I”ll tell you
lovers with a cause
are the real rebels
the spiritual benefactors,
the wounded heroes,
the mystics eternally misunderstood
with fine grit paper
working against the grain
hands slivered and bleeding
creating hidden beauty
in time
through their labor
floating free-form
defying the gravity
of power, greed, envy”¦
detached-disconnected
born anew
these spirit artists become suspect
a kind of threat to social order
to be burned at a stake
nailed to a cross
assassinated by sniper fire
getting them out of the way
we make martyrs of them
coz the dead don”t scare us
the way living flesh and bone does
it”s easier to glorify a touched up past
than face a future
we seem hell-bent on desecrating
one by one
all are shot down
“¦and when the fields where the wildflowers grow
have been bulldozed and destroyed
then spring is gone
and what”s left
is a sort of somber confusion
as hard to define
as that 4 letter word
we so readily cut and paste
to fit our purpose
***