DON'T YOU KNOW

Everybody so caught up in this undertow
of daily momentum, going to work, paying our bills,
gettin' 'er done, on the run, making money, saving coins,
spending bling, yet no matter where you go, be it Alabama,
Alaska, Argentina, Austria, Afghanistan, Arizona, Washington D.C,
your house, my place, homeless shelters, hospitals, communes,
public parks, hotels, hostels, bus stations, train stations, police stations, centers for disease control, centers of humanitarianism, churches, concert halls, high schools, dog shelters, gardens, beaches, on this side of the ocean, on that side, it doesn't seem to matter--life continues its relentless churning and toiling and working and boiling and cleaning and singing and praying and laughing and all the while as preachers teach and teachers preach and everyone reaches toward each other or away from it all, no matter how big or small, how well-meaning or fawning or preening, no matter how finely educated or how many degrees are hung up on our walls, no matter how rich or how poor, we can't seem to even open the door wide enough to air things out or slow down quickly enough our mutual industriousness polluting, feuding, rooting and contaminating our land, our oceans, our skies, our rivers, the air we breathe, the water we drink, even our own blood, no matter how much we care to think, it's a rat race en masse to grab ass or get to the top of the money heap, to get it cheap or squeeze ourselves into that one percent, or if all else fails to wave it all away and hit the hobo rails, hitchhike across the USA, walk on the wild side or dare to take a fast ride on the coattails of the willing, while the unforgiving continue to replicate and the hopeless among us wait, can we get an amen and not a hung jury, can we quit bickering over half a dozen and sixes, over the existence of gods or a supreme being, dare we give each other a nod from across the aisle, after awhile maybe we should all take a break, in shifts, if you get my drift, to fix the things that matter, like food, clothing, shelter, water, air, a sustainable environment, it really is a no brainer, so how come it appears as if we haven't become any saner?