Are You a Thinking Man?

Doom-birds shuttling back and forth seem
to weave in the air the rug of despair.
Positions have been taken up, there's gunfire back there,
Cannon-balls darkly shake the earth under your feet
Can't you hear?

Lift up your head you've slept enough,
If you call this a heart, these arteries
Let them not beat or pulse any more,
Be something, a voice, a light, a fist.

Before evil winds bring your roof down on your head,
Before flood-waters acre after acre carry off
The land you walk on to the vast seas
Make haste

Now is the time to start things with the rising sun
Back, go back to the books you had spat upon
The sweat of hard work in their every line
The sun shining on their every page
Don't feel ashamed the guilt is not all yours
Tear up the degrees you were given at thirty
Be a child with an alphabet

Roads are blocked, fields surrounded,
Barbed wire rampant everywhere
Birds of prey circling overhead.
Don’t say ‘I give up, it’s beyond me’
Open both arms, open them wide
And be a scarecrow.