Robert Lawson | + Follow Poet |
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Utopia

Our lives and our time
Fired useless
Into the air
Toy cap gun shots
Those winter palaces unstormed
No tax offices ransacked
Where is utopia I asked
And no-one knew
They looked at me with pity
As if I still talked
To an imaginary friend
At my age
I should know better
But I don´t
Instead
I dream..
II
I dream of anarchist airships
On a pan African glide
Piers Plowman stares in wonder
Shielding his eyes
I dream the wind
Will be our radio
And the moon our television
I dream of everyday life
After the revolution
III
After the revolution
We will sweep the streets
& sing
We will live like zen monks
In our tiny rooms
In our blissful shacks
Night rain music on tin roofs
Low mattresses, paper lanterns
We will hike to distant
Moon villages
& be greeted as brothers
In the plaza
Conversation & blue wine
Flow until dawn
IV
What is utopia?
Utopia is a charge of indecency
When decency means indifference
Utopia is a returned umbrella
Utopia is a million returned umbrellas
Utopia is a game for all the family
Utopia is a family for all the family
Utopia is a hermit
Who plays chess
With passing birds
In a secret cabin on the roof
Of a skyscraper
Utopia is a golden cargo ship
Docking in fog
Utopia is all victory to the soviets
Utopia is all victory to the
Ice cream man
Utopia is a tree that giggles
When you pick it´s fruit
Reality can go whistle
If it wants its money back
Vote for utopia !
V
A crowd has gathered
Some silent, some laughing
Some jeering
A voice from the back
Asks ´ So what happens in utopia? ´
Well…
In utopia- Provo white bicycles
On every corner
In utopia Berryman grows wings
Sexton´s red sports car stalls
& the hose pipe falls
In utopia Godzilla rescues
Kittens from trees
In utopia the KGB
Strip naked & dance
To the Plastic People of the
Universe
In utopia time changes direction
On a whim
In utopia you can grow a beard
In a day
In utopia the Mississippi
Flows to Venus
While Huck & Jim doze
Peacefully on their raft
In utopia economists
Shine shoes
In utopia children will
Learn to levitate
Like Saint Joseph of Cupertino
In utopia
Book now to avoid
Disappointment !
VI
Another voice wants to know
If there are almost utopias
Already here
He has a map and pin
& so like Hakim Bey I list my
Temporary & personal utopias
Scoraig lit by aurora borealis
& LSD weld sparks
Paria Canyon Utah
The night we flash lit
A tumbleweed
Big as a church
As the silver semi´s ghosted by on
Highway 89
Rain swimming with my brother
In the former west Germany
I glimpsed utopia on moor-tinted
Mystery streets of Arcos & Cadiz
Where taking my fortune
I could have stepped into space
Gone to Croatian
& even here now
I could step inside
A voodoo chalk circle
& feel myself vonu
To cruel blows & ruinous
taxes
VII
´Enough of this foolishness ´
Of course there always comes
The deflater
With a lance in search of a
Dragon
A soup bowl to piss in
A degrader of myths
No watcher of passing clouds
Only a watcher of clocks
Utopia won´t work he clucks
Human nature
Wickedness
Human greed
Remember the blackouts
Lootings and chaos
Burnt out cars on suburban
Lawns
Empty supermarket shelves
Drunk beggars shitting in doorways
As the last helicopter
Takes off from the embassy roof
Chisel jawed
Men of action
Howard Roark
John Galt
Will save us
Or at least themselves
While you grow old
And rot
Dreaming of utopia
VIII
But still I dream
IX
In our earth hours
Remaining
There is so much
To see
To build
Henry Darger in his room
Drew a 20,000 page
Dream he could live inside
Others sing nonsense songs
& laugh
Rescue holy snails
Watchful & quietly kind
I sit here as summer turns cool
Spy Bee Eaters
Invisible goat bells on the
River bed
Eucalyptus sway
One day
I will hop the back fence
And light out
With bed roll, boots
And old slouch hat
Toward utopia
Until then
I will stand out
In champagne moonlit yard
& slowly lower my arms
& like saint Joe
Hope to levitate

Copyright © Robert Lawson | Year Posted 2017

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