World on Fire

An eternally curious race

in a quest of purpose
never running out of questions
Pain is but the greatest process
to achieving new perfection
Outside of our innate senses
lost and sleeping understanding
there is no escape from our shared delirium

Progress has become a concept
Idealized, weaponized

civilized our sterile minds have no connection
to our very souls. our common sense

this is the price we pay for liberty
our own imprisonment to senseless self indulgence
I wonder if we can ever force ourselves to see
To recognize the sense of misery
that surrounds us all. the method of our madness

Tell me that this is not hell on Earth
Lining up against our brother
We fight to prove ourselves and pass the time
To rally up support
the enemy must not possess humanity
We vow that God is on our side,
and we shall win this fight
and any price of life is seen
only as a further sacrifice
to the great crusade the highest cause
of some abstract and detached perception
of what the people want


Disemboweled truths
twisted, cleaned, wrung out and
hung up to become another cut and dried response
there's no time for nonsense
no time for Here & Now to blossom
with THE END so close


Pharisees and Politicians
just as blind as lady justice
weighing out her daily bribe
with blood soaked hands and heavy hearts
Both sides claim to fight
for freedom, peace and life
destruction of an enemy
that isn't really human

Suicide in protest is a testament to sickness
but not of them who die but we who lie
imprisoned in complacence
Blood is shed to show the way
That we have failed each other
that we now bring about
our own destruction

the end will justify the means
the lesson lost in understanding

~Poem by Young Brother

Passers-by stop to watch as flames envelope a young Buddhist monk, Saigon, October 5th, 1963.

The man sits impassively in the central market square, he has set himself on fire performing a ritual suicide in protest against governmental anti-Buddhist policies. Crowds gathered to protest in Hue after the South Vietnamese government prohibited Buddhists from carrying flags on Buddha's birthday. Government troops opened fire to disperse the dissidents, killing nine people, Diems government blamed the incident on the Vietcong and never admitted responsibility. The Buddhist leadership quickly organized demonstrations that eventually led to seven monks burning themselves to death.

I guess you must eventually become immune - the man behind the monk is still trying to find a light for his cigarette.