Wasteland

This would be the first poem that I've written in a very long time. Maybe it'll become a song in time, but for now I'm satisfied with the words as they appear here. I wrote this around the time that civilians were being killed in Egypt and Syria. I was so disturbed by the images of "sleeping children" and stories of civilians being killed of all backgrounds, yet also disturbed by a culture here at home where I don't feel I have the freedom to ask honest questions anymore. Thoughts of the persecuted church also loomed in my mind and thoughts of "how good we have it" in the west as Christians, and yet the reality of an increasingly polarized society here as well and an apparent inability to dialogue, even as there remains an assumption of equality. I stayed up a bit too late while at work and being a mess of emotions I tried to go to sleep and waking again in that half-awake, half-asleep state I dreamed I saw a wasteland and got up and wrote this down, largely as it is here.


Wasteland

Why do I do this to myself? 
I should have gone to bed
not stayed up to watch the headlines
glaring from the dead

Someone's no tomorrow
yet everything I see reminds me
they won't talk to me
insistent tunnel needs

betray your faith for unforgiveness 
anti gun anti something anti gay anti conscience I screamed!
noone knows the troubles I see that don't compare to burning churches burning crosses burning
bullet in her 10 year old chest

don't compare to burning bodies burning bridges burning crosses burning 
sacrifice for our beloved Egypt 
established 50 A.D.
since 50 A.D

Don't compare to your good fortune not so bad it's not so bad just go to sleep
don't retaliate don't think-
it's not so bad it's not so bad it's not so -why do I see a wasteland
between waking and sleep?
Why do I see a wasteland 
with aching blackness beneath?

Empty visions empty prophets empty promise when you disagree
put the poison in the bottle and take it to your sleep and dream of wastelands
wastelands, violence beneath
dream of wastelands wastelands silence at your feet
and dream of wastelands wastelands
falling beneath
wastelands

with new visions of equality
be still the empty voice of
suicide correctness
don't you tell us how it really is
while hurtle stones falling falling beneath 

not so bad it's not so bad 
just go to sleep
it's not so bad it's not so bad
while I'm falling asleep

why do I dream of wastelands wastelands 
with blackness beneath
why do I dream of wastelands wastelands 
between waking and sleep?
Why do I see a wasteland
with silence beneath 
wastelands


thanks for listening,

M.A. Harvey


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