Children in cages

Children in cages,

and tyrants in the White House.

Smoke in suburbs.

Maroon velvet rugs under the feet of an artificial fool.

Children in cages and human beasts in the White House.

Those who have a sick soul inhabit the palaces of the republic.

The fighters languish in the suburbs.

Where have the America of California gone?

You no longer wear flowers in your hair.

You were afraid of the freedom of your soul

and you decided to imitate 

the decadent and unfair tawdriness of the Sun King 

and all the pathetic kings in the world

that are considered superior people.

Where have all the flowers gone?

They ripped them out of the earth 

and kept in the wicker basket 

of an old grandmother who had lost her head.

They now stink, and they will not be longer flowers.

Where is the harmonics of Key West?

Where does the girl with eyes of heaven live?

The girl who swam in the nude under the bridge of San Francisco?

She abhorred freedom because of a bad hangover,

and because of the silver mirrors 

with which they bought the sacred message of the Great Spirit.

Where are you John Sebastian?

Where did you leave the younger generation?

You don’t ask your darling to be home soon anymore.

You no longer stop your song in Woodstock to make the audience sing.

Where did you leave the spoon and the dreams?

Children in cages

Children in cages

Kids in cages and decadence in the White House.

Robert Conway, Shangrila, June 19, 2018