Date of Birth: October 9, 1940
Place of Birth: Oxford Street Maternity Hospital, Liverpool, England
Name at Birth: John Winston Lennon.
Just imagine…
…there’s no heaven –
this is it, all she wrote,
no rebirth, no atonement,
no salvation, no rapture, no virgins,
what you do now is your meaning and memoriam;
then what
would you,
should you,
could you, do.
…no hell below us –
or beside us,
where rapacious speculators and avaricious leaders
construct high rise homes of privilege
on shifting toxic sands,
displacing tribes once snatched from ancient lands,
twice moved from Fillmore city streets.
…above us only sky –
blue, vibrating, clear,
no rolling thunder-birds of prey
shuddering the walls of Soma SRO’s
where vets and refugees
and other survivors of our illegal incursions
tremble,
trapped in pain-filled memories
…there’s no countries –
no maquiladoro’s, multi-nationals, minute-men,
taco fencing brothers and sisters
from their stolen lands - tear down that wall.
No indigenous warriors still fighting
further despoilment of sacred grounds.
…nothing to kill or die for –
no blood for oil or staining sand,
deluded projections of a new American century
of domination
and despair
and power
and - gory- for ever and amen
…no religion too –
no evangelical radical crusading
wakening militant Islam,
imposing dubious democracies abroad,
whilst shredding bills at home.
Judeo-Christian justification of unholy jihad
tearing true belief from true believers.
…no possessions –
how much does one man need,
how little could one man use,
a closet full of shoes, a life devoid of hope.
Waste not, want not, as Daddy used to say,
if you have enough for you, then give the rest away.
…no need for greed or hunger –
no shopping carts overflowing
with discarded debris of our mindless consumption
no desolate angel hearted brothers foregoing food
for the numbing smack of the pipe.
To each pot a chicken,.
…a brotherhood of man –
fresh elected faces, mirroring the people,
educating us in principles of caution,
protesting poisoning of children
and pulmonary assaults on precious elders.
A city and a world for all.
Imagine all the People
Living life in peace.
Happy Birthday John my brother.
We still have a dream.
Patrick Monk.RN. Noe Valley www.ahimsa4mayor.com
“The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with weary feet,
Until it joins some larger way,
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then ? I cannot say.”
(Bilbo's Walking Song- Tolkein)
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