For the Last Decade
(Third Hour of Half Marathon 2021)

For the last decade
We have shared our thoughts and prayers
For the last 18 months
We have shared our thoughts and prayers
For the last few days
We have shared our thoughts and prayers
As we search for signs of life
Amid the rubble
Amid the fire
Amid the water
Amid the storm
We hope to wake up to good news
As the bad news we last heard
As we drifted to sleep lightly
Haunted our sleep
We have no time
For REM or deep sleep
Coffee barely prepares us
As we stare into the tv void
The preachers, priests, rabbis, imams
Are speechless beneath the glare
They stutter to the rhythm of multi rhythmic
Gun blasts in the distance getting closer
Each standing at a corner
Offering prayers to ward off danger
We conjure thoughts of miracles
As we search for signs of life
Hoping our thoughts and prayers will lead to recovery
Rather than acceptance of retrieval
Our thoughts run rampant
And crash over their prayers
Among the sounds of thunderous steel and concrete crashing
Among the sounds of multi rhythmic gunfire
I was thinking and praying for fireworks
I think I was misunderstood
By the powers that grant wishes
Or answer to those who think and pray
For something different or something better
Not just a better result
For the last five millennia
We have been haunted
By the thoughts of prayers
Of others
I think as we wake up to a disturbed sleep
That we have been deeply misunderstood.
Our ancestors traded tranquility
For the ability
To think and pray.
We search for signs of life
Among concrete and steel ruins
With trained dogs
Who couldn’t be happier
We use robots
To search for the sniper
Hiding behind the wall
We offer a solution
An emulsion of thoughts and prayers
We find ourselves humming to a multi rhythmic beat
Of gunfire and buildings falling
A modern song recorded by satellites
And played back on the 24 hour cycle of news
Until the conductor adds a new chorus