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No Time For Dreamers
by Paul E. Nelson

A time for war for
an “Operation Infinite Justice”
for smart bombs & damage
collateral. No buildings
New York, no songs
but the drum beat
what
   propels
      soldiers.

No time for hand-holding
for simple kiss or eros.

No TV pictures of severed hand
of Afghan child in shrapnel.
No time for dreamers.

Another car w/ half-mast
American flag passes
on the highway.

Arguments w/ Martin
   & Charlie @ the bar
      another lung-full
of
         cigarette smoke.

No time for bebop
that cymbal riff
ti ti tish  ti ti tish.

No horn play.
No foreplay
just war, there's
no time for dreamers.

If you killed my little girl
   I'd fly the next plane
      into your skyscraper.

If my Grandmother died for your access
to cheap resources, I'd hurl
the next grenade.

I have no rocket launcher
but a hunch there's
no time for dreamers.

No time to
watch the wind, no
time for rain
on your face, no
samba, no meditation, no
candle-burning, but
the smell of bodies
& carnage. The global
war on terrorism, there's
no time for dreamers.

No time to think to see
to feel. Time to
bleed & justify.

Time to hold breath
   & suspect strange packages
      in the mail.

The postman comes
   delivers the news
      there's no time
for dreamers.

Time for war pictures
   sanitized by war planners.
      Time for the blood
         of patriots, time
for heroes & charlatans.
Time for a commercial
message         or seven
but         
         no
time         
         for
dreamers.

Time to watch your skin
but don't slip it in.
Buy stock in G.E.
War is up. Generals
w/ erections.
Watch them all salute.

No time to disengage
REACT  REACT  REACT

No time to follow the dollar,
exercise free speech, no
time to question, kayak
or quell brown-skin
babies' hunger.
There's no time      
      for dreamers.

No time to garden
or nourish.
         We've
corned beef MRE's
&  pizza  pizza  pizza.

War is the grown man's
football game & we
warm up w/ an exhibition
against Taliban, prepare
for playoffs vs. China.

Hooray for our side.
God Bless America.
Sing   only if your song
is for patriots, there's
no time for dreamers.

Another love poem @ Red Sky.
You're a lucky man Mike” I say.

Somewhere in the Olympics
a bear rests, cows
hunker down in the
valley. The cat's
asleep on the futon there's
no time for dreamers.

Art budget slashed.
Everyone eat genetic experiments, what's
good for G.E.'s good
for America. No questions.
No thought. No reason.

There's
no time for dreamers.

We must destroy the village
to save it.
We must
sacrifice some of our freedoms
to save the American way
of life. Another billion for the
         C.I.A.

No time to cry
while Afghans die, there's
no time for dreamers.

No time to hear Don Pullen's piano
as he breaks my heart
from the grave
         again.

We hardly knew George Adams.
We hardly had this thing
humanity down.
No time for the alto of Carlos Ward.
No time for the sweet caress
on the back of your neck.
No time for wind
hugs or sailing.
We need motors & rhetoric. The
on-ramp  to  the  profane. We
gave peace a chance they
turned planes into bombs.
Technology turned against us
a Bin Laden blowback.
We get revenge only if
there's

no time for dreamers.

Einstein shakes his head
again in heaven.

Another relief fund benefit.
Another non-profit suicide.
Another rock thrown in the intifada
against the bow of the U.S.S. Empire, but
it's going down  there's
no time for denial  there's
no time for dreamers.

Get Clear the oracle says.
Get your house in order
sacred bifurcation has come.

Stop the war in your life
actions from agonies
he bleeds we bleed
the apocalypse IS now
the dream has ended they'd
have you believe

w/
no time left;      for dreamers.

©2001, Paul E. Nelson 10.22.01 1:30am


Paul Nelson is El Presidente of It Plays In Peoria Productions in Auburn, Washington & co-founder of the Northwest SPoken Word LAB, aka SPLAB.

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