Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Poetry Year August 26th The Hurricane, For EMK after Bob Dylan



Pistol shots ring out in the California night.
The whole world was wrong,
Nothing could go right.
Oh my god they've killed the dream.
Here comes the story of the Hurricane,
The man the Republicans came to blame,
for something he would never do
Kept from a prison cell,
but one time he could-a been
The leader of the world.

A car in a river every one could see,
a woman name Kopeche a drowning reed.
Stories rattled and decomposed.
Two bodies there, one dead the other still living.
All the good cut loose in the fog.
His brother's eulogy might as well have been his own.
A gin flower's last seed wilting under the hot television lights.

But the fever had not quite run,
he still knew that they had more terms than one.
Kept from a destiny,
but one time he could-a been
The leader of the world.

Against an era and a President failed,
on a convention podium he railed.
The last liberal that anyone knew,
he was the last man who knew what to do.
But the ballots were all marked in advanced,
the whole country never stood a chance.
No surprises were just the surprise,
by a hollow actor they were hypnotized.

When the chances went down to defeat,
he just got up and went back on his feet.
Carved his name on the senate seats,
too many battles, but so few retreats.
Denied the dollars he found a few dimes,
it was the best he could do in these times.

So let me tell you about the Hurricane,
the man the Republicans came to blame,
but it won't be over till the bill bears his name,
because our lives are not an insurance game.
Kept from the Presidency,
but one time he could-a been
The leader of the world.

Within sight of his life long dream,
he was stricken down and crossed over that stream.
Left the world as the teabaggers scream
about some insane Hitler meme.
Don't you know that in the camps,
everyone had health care from the state?
They've just robbed the register,
they hope you'll understand,
that's what it means to be free,
in this Christian land.

So that's the story of the Hurricane,
his fall and rise and return to fame,
tangle with forces that he couldn't quite tame.
Kept from the promised land,
but one time he could-a been
healer of the world.

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