There's a boat coming
And I can see I'll miss it again
One more time
I am a passenger with no ticket or passport
One more time
I must stay and promote the trip
One more time
I am used invisibly
One more time
I'm still here
I guess I must like the island
Invisible Elba
If the Tao were true in my heart
Perhaps I wouldn't feel this way
Or does a lion stay a lion
And an eagle stay an eagle
If these are truly their paths?
Do I seem more like a housecat
More like a sparrow
Or is there a plague upon the vision
Of those we've charged to identify
Those with the keys to my cage
Those with eyes of stone.
I thought it was a steamer;
It's a tugboat.
This island is sinking
And everyone wants off.
Fuck you, Captain Sir;
Take your boat and sail.
Get away from here
Before they kill you all
Before panic and anger
Turns your ship to debris,
And yourself, your crew, your passengers
To victims.
I for one am sick of looking at you
And I won't fight for space on deck
And I won't lift a finger to help you
If, in their madness,
The angry masses tear you all to shreds.
Sail now
Leave me as you've left me every time before
With more knowledge
More reasons to live
Awaiting the imminent wave of death
With more gold than I can carry
In a place where gold is worthless
Except in the ideals of jealous fools.
I will watch
The panic dances of the selfish
A class to whom I suppose I belong
And am no better than.
We shall live and die together
A hundred thousand miles from anywhere
And in the end
We shall all be invisible
I'm sure the piles of corpses
At Dachau and Buchenwald and Treblinka
Looked very small from space.
GS 5/17/90