For John Lennon's 61's birthday Oct. 9/01
It's always good to be prepared for death

             because of course it could happen any time-

                           the Dalai Lama instructs us how the live

                                         as if we're shadowed by a sniper –

                           but with gangs of terrorists bombing the U.S.A.

                                         and Americans firebombing the Afghanis

                           with pneumonic plague breaking out in India

                                         and maybe China and Vietnam as well

                           traveling the airlines in the same way

                                         as bubonic rats get around on ships

                           and civil wars raging through Africa

              where everybody who's anybody's a refugee

or an orphan of refugees or of AIDS

             a very calm demeanour is required.
Le Devoir dit nous sommes tous am?©ricains

             and Putin says humanity's maturing

                           but as for me I'd prefer to say that I'm

                                         an orphan growing up knowing my mother

                           died of AIDS and not knowing my father at all

                                         except that he's a solider who raped mama

                           while she was trying to flee a bomb attack

                                         or we're starving and a humanitarian box

                           falls from the sky and lands in the danger zone,

                                         there's enough pasta to last a week

                           enough penicillin to prolong a life or two

             and we're crawling towards it and expecting

at any moment to be blown up by a mine

             a very calm demeanour is required.