a poem - a haibun - a prayer

Detriment, by Mia Bergeron

silence is now our father

what has become of our voices
when did the crows come
and rip out our throats
silence is now our father
this land is filled with great ghettos
in city after city
and we say nothing
silence is now our father
children are going hungry
in the shadows of millionaires
children
do you hear me
hungry
and we say nothing
silence is now our father
there is not even a gurgling sound
in our throats
our taxes pay for the bombs
that blow apart hungry children
in other lands
children
do you hear me
blown apart
the fat pig of government
pours liquid gold
into the belly of the military
enough gold to feed all of the world
where is it spent
on bullets and jet fuel
on rifles and bombs
and we say nothing
silence is now our father
do we build schools
no
we build prisons
do we pass laws
to help people be free
no
we pass laws
to take their freedom away
and we say nothing
for silence is indeed our father
we are pumping life
from the earth itself
and pouring poison
into the empty hole
we are melting the ice caps
and allowing those who do it
to call it god's will
and we say nothing
and silence is indeed our father
no more
friend
it is time to find our voices
once again
it is time to speak
the emperor has no clothes
the people we were told are our enemies
are not our enemies
and it is time for us to stop being theirs
I say it is time to scream
to rage
are you listening
leave your house
stop getting stoned on your television
it is time now for us all to walk outside
and scream in the street as one
we'll just stop traffic and scream
we'll stop working and scream
we'll scream for the hungry children
we'll scream for the people
who sleep under the freeway
we'll scream for the women
turned away from the clinic
we'll scream for the prisoners with no hope
we'll scream for the iraqi villagers
crying at the graveside
we'll scream for the children
who walk north in terror
we'll scream for the family
that just can't make it until payday
we'll scream for the wounds of the earth
for the trash in the sea
we'll scream for the filth in the air
we'll scream for the leaders
getting rich on death and war
we'll scream for the lifetime
of lies we have endured
we'll scream for the numbness in our minds
we'll scream for the freedom of our hearts
we'll scream and we will not stop screaming
we'll scream because we are human beings
And we own our own bodies
we will all rise at last and go outside
and we will scream.
silence is not our father
silence is not our father
silence is not our father

-for larry jaffe & priyesha lobinha nair-

james lee jobe

_____

Do your harsh judgments make you happy?

Byron Katie 

_____

August, third week. (a haibun)

I watch the earth hungrily swallow the water as I put the hose on very low and leave it in the garden. Above me the tree branches are reaching out for even a hint of breeze. The day is seriously hot, and clear enough that I can see snow on the mountaintops of the Sierra Nevada, far to my east. Another month until the start of autumn, so there's still time to grow a few tomatoes, a few cucumbers.

Tend the earth, plant the seeds,

shower with water and love -

life is a garden.

james lee jobe

_____

If you become a little alert you will find
love, light, laughter, everywhere.

Osho

_____

prayer

from falsehood may I find truth
from despair may I find hope
from hate may I find love
from death may I find life
from the darkness may I find the light
for these things I pray

james lee jobe

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james