Bridges by Utah Philips

Time is an enormous long river
And I'm standing in it
Just as you're standing in it
My elders were the tributaries
And everything they thought
And every struggle they went through
And everything they gave their lives to
And every song they created
And every poem that they laid down
Flows down to me...

And I can reach down into that
river and take out what I need
To get through this world
Bridges
From my time to your time

As my elders from their time to my time
And we'll put into the river
And we let it go
And it flows away from us, and away from us
'Til it no longer has our name, our identity
It has its own utility, its own use
And people will take what they need to make it part of their lives.

How many eggs does it take
To learn how to juggle?
How many hearts does it take
To learn how to love?


A stranger bursts
Into the diner
Stares down the cook
"HAHA!!"  He says.
"I WANT TO JUMP OVER
THIS COUNTER
AND HUMP YOUR LEG!!!!"
I wish I lived that way.


We share the same name
But we aren't family
We once pretended
But that was when pretend
Came easy.  Like
Money under your pillow
Or presents under the tree
With teeth and cookies missing
Now all that's missing is
You.

Oh the sounds the pavement makes
As shadows rise from within
Flat, empty, hollow lives
Locked in the prisons of their mind
Erupting from the cracked pavement
The faceless army unites
Armed with pen and pain

Powerless

Powerless

Thoughts come but never leave
Always poking and telling me
Half of the story.

They tell me
I will enjoy it
I deserve it
I need it
No one will know
No one cares
And because I don't care I listen.

I don't care because I am tired
I am tired of always hearing the voices
I listen and obey
Just so they go away
And yes they do come back another day
Another day
Another day
Another day.

Repetition...it's always the same old song and dance
Porn star dancing with hands down my pants
Blind to the the reality of my own pain
I think not of what I have to loose
But only what's to gain.
A hard one, release, and stain.

Spent my life waiting for the stain to dry.
Spend my time thinking of my alibi
Wanting to cry
To scared to die
Tired of the lie
Pack my bag and fly

My wings are broken.
They have been for years
if I even had them at all.
Maybe that too is one of the lies I believed.
But that is the first of the truths I am starting to live.
Slowly day by day as I wake up in the same bed
the same house
the same city
with the same streets
I start to find freedom in the routine.

Yes I know where the women are
But I also know where hope is
And it's closer than a number
Hope is the people I live with
The friends that won't give up.
The God that forgives.
Hope is looking back at me in the mirror.