Thoughts on War

THOUGHTS ON WAR, WAR ON THOUGHT

We feed them
And then we bomb them
One last meal to calm them
And to show them that we care
Then we send them
To the stone age
Oh? They're already there?

THOUGHTS ON WAR

I assumed it was a small plane
That had strayed off course.
Then the second plane hit,
And I still thought small.
It takes a while for evil to sink in.
I called our son Joshua in New York
Dialed his number at work, uptown
All circuits busy all circuits busy
Suddenly it's a decade earlier
I'm dialing our son Eli in China
During the Tiananmen crackdown
All circuits busy all circuits busy
All bridges closed in Guangzhou,
All bridges closed in New York City
The tanks rolled through Tiananmen
The Trade Towers collapsed
Our sons, thank goodness, were safe.

The Trade Center
Has entered
The realm of rubble
Madness madness curdling the sky
Shattering our safety bubble
We have to ask why
We have to ask why.

THOUGHTS ON WAR

Six billion humans, six billion minds,
And asleep or awake, they're thinking,
In as many languages as there are heads.
Even those who speak the same tongue,
Don't really
For every word has a different history
In every human mind.

When awake,
We try to decide where our minds are headed.
When we're sleeping
Our minds pick their own paths
I dreamt I was hurtling down a hill,
On a tiny bike, no brakes, no steering,
I tried to use my body to control my descent
A girl on a scooter and a boy on a skate-board
Wove back and forth, behind me, in front of me,
Almost colliding with me.
My survival depended on them. And on me.

Six billion minds with six billion thoughts
Every second of every day,
Hurtle on cycles, no brakes, no steering,
And all of them all of them all of them,
All of them all of them all of them
All of them want control

Its surface constructed in delicate balance
With humans the ballast,
To sink or to float
In delicate intricate intertwined balance
A bomb a minute, delicate intricate
A bomb a minute we tested out our stock
Apocalyptic damage to Iraq
A bomb a minute we tested out our stock
Apocalyptic damage to Iraq
Apocalypse apocalypse apocalypse
I pucker lips I pucker lips I pucker lips
Apocalypse I pucker lips a bomb or a kiss
Apocalypse I pucker lips a bomb or a kiss
A kiss a second a bomb a minute
A kiss a second a bomb a minute
Six billion thoughts each moment of the day
Six billion thinking in every possible way
And all of them all of them all of them all of them
All of them want control

WAR ON THOUGHT

Demonize demonize
Demonize the enemy
Then you can kill him
Guiltlessly
Demonize demonize
Each sees the devil
In the enemy's eyes,
No one looks into
His own
New York City Afghanistan
Kashmir India Pakistan
The West Bank Jerusalem
Bosnia Iraq Iran
Kill the innocent, create more hate
Leave a legacy that has no end
For mindless revenge breeds mindless revenge
Breeds revenge breeds revenge breeds revenge.