The Wrong Tree

The Wrong Tree

Look at us humans

bones and blood and skin

eating fruit from the wrong tree,

sailing arks to banish the bad

but we are fools and sink with the ship

Prayers unheard clog the earth

war after war and the world whirls on

a murderer in every corner

superheros vanished or banished,

refugees like the rest of us

Atlantis has disappeared

saints burned at the stake

Shangri La never was

think Hiroshima, my love

Mozart was recalled at thirty-five

Moses forbidden the promised land

slavery and plagues still alive

and no one to raise us from the dead

Look, Henny Penny

the ruble is falling

the wall is wailing

the pipes are calling

Danny, the boy, the soldier

tells Mama he's frightened -

then the missile explodes

The sun shines and regrets and retreats

the crocodile cries and destroys

this is not the planet of free choice

News news everywhere

on buildings, in bunkers,

oh how the world has shrunk

We are all golems

slumped on the floor

waiting for instructions…

or our own destruction