Sparring with Clay, losing to Ali.

Climb into your attic
and dig up the ancient snapshots of your parents
that they've been hiding from you.
They're wearing cowboy hats and beads
bell-bottoms and fedoras.
They're shoving flowers down the barrels of guns
one day and inciting revolution
through narcotics and casual sex the next.
They're just as crazy and confused
as you are now.
Take a look at those photos
and breathe deeply
knowing that most people
drift towards the center
and will mellow out eventually
once they start paying a mortage
and changing diapers.
There's hope for us all, ladies and germs.

The ones who don't change, the brilliant shining lights
the individuals blessed with an addiction to the flavor of
the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
are those who only lose more and more
of their minds and souls as time meanders forward.
These are the creators of the microwave oven
the men who developed the atom bomb
the holy rollers who first spoke in tongues
the legislators who banned smoking in bars.
The utterly ridiculous still held dear by the masses.
So, Camus, you want to chat about the absurd?

Many of the breed will hide behind a banner.
You've heard the slogans all before:
"We're from the government, and
we're here to help."
Beware the man
who swears he means
no harm
for he is truly
the most dangerous.

Don't be fooled; the myth of the
hopeless innovator, the cursed genius
the martyr bleeding on his perpetual motion machine
does not hold up in these happy hunting grounds.

That's no sheep wandering from the herd.
it's a wolf doing reconnaissance
for the rest of the pack.

There was a man who paid
to try to skip a day.
They killed him.
Meanwhile, there are people
who can tie knots in cherry stems
with their tongues.

Make it fun again.