Sunday, November 8, 2009

I Am Waiting by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

I am waiting for my case to come up
and I am waiting
for a rebirth of wonder
and i am waiting for someone
to really discover America
and wait
and i am waiting
for the discovery
of a new symbolic western frontier
and i am waiting
for the american eagle
to really spread its wings
and straighten up and fly right
and i am waiting
for the age of anxiety
to drop dead
and i am waiting
for the war to be fought
which will make the world safe
for anarchy
and i am waiting
for the final withering away
of all governments
and i am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder

I am waitn for the Second Coming
and i am waiting
for a religious revival
to sweep thru the state of Arizona
and i am waiting
for the Grapes of Wrath to be stored
and i am waiting for them to prove
that God is really America
and i am seriously waiting
for Billy Graham and Elvis Presley
to exchange roles
seriously
and i am waiting
to see God on television
pied onto church altars
if only they can find
the right channel
to tune in on
and i am waiting
for the Last Supper to be served again
with a strange new appetizer
andi am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder

I am waiting for my number to be called
and i am waiting
for the living end
and i am waiting
for dad to come home
his pockets full
of irradiated silver dollars
and i am waiting
for the atomic tests to end
and i am waiting happily
for things to get much worse
before they improve
and i wam waiting
for the Salvation Army to take over
and i am waiting
for the human crowd
to wander off a cliff somewhere
clutching its atomic umbrella
and i am waiting
for Ike to act
and i am waiting
for the meek to be blessed
and inherit the earth
without taxes
and i am waiting
for forests and animals
to reclaim the earth as theirs
and i am waiting
for a way to be devised
to destroy all nationalisms
without killing anybody
and i am waiting
for linnets and planets to fall like rain
and i am waiting for lovers and weepers
to lie down together again
in a new rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for the Great Divide to be crossed
and i am anxiously waiting
for the secret of eternal life to be discovered
by an obscure general practitioner
and save me forever from certain death
and i am waiting
for the storms of life
to be over
and i am waiting
to set sail for happiness
and i am waiting
for a reconstructed Mayflower
to reach America
with its picture story and tv rights
sold in advance to the natives
and i am waiting
for the lost music to sound again
in the Lost Continent
in a new rebirth of wonder................

_Lawrence Ferlinghetti

............. (look up the rest, i'm tired of typing)

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