Inertia

Inertia 

A candidate for president

sat down and preached 

the idea of a universal income,

as if 

when people had their needs 

taken care of monetarily 

then they might actually 

chose to live their dreams,

but 

how could a man 

who’s spent his entire life 

campaigning in a blue suit 

possibly know 

what you or I 

might need?

It’s those limitations 

that we spend 

our precious years bitching about,

that are actually the blessings 

we’ve been praying for,

nothing worth having

has ever been had for free,

and it’s that need 

that’s driven me across this city,

up and down the beach,

over the hills,

and through the woods

for a reading 

or a look

just to glimpse

what this life could be.

I suppose you and me

could be entirely different,

I’ve seen a black man

in a room full of white people

read poetry 

with which he 

only had one hand to write it with,

I’ve been the only guy like me

on stage of spoken word poets

when the only other white guy was a Jew 

who wore a kippah 

and wrote about his Daddy,

then I had a man tell me 

that he didn’t like 

the new Joaquin Phoenix movie

because it didn’t have a happy ending,

and it's looking out 

over this little balcony that I think 

maybe if your life didn’t suck

then you might actually 

be able to handle something challenging.

It’s not that it’s that tough,

it’s just difficult to change direction

when you’re already on a path,

such is Newton’s Law:

YOU WANT TO KEEP DOING

WHAT IT IS

THAT YOU ARE ALREADY DOING.

This is true,

because we all do it;

the couch potato 

doesn’t want to get up,

the addict

needs another hit,

and the gym rat

wants one last rep,

but Mr. or Mrs.

Presidential candidate

what is it 

that we actually need?

There’s an old story that you might know

about a man named Geppetto

who built a puppet son

and named him Pinocchio,

well that boy

wanted to become real

and learn how to feel,

he was given a friend

(a conscience inside himself),

a path to take

(he had to leave home),

a journey of return

(all heroes come back),

to When You Wish Upon a Star

is to pray

and to receive your answer 

is to act 

and it 

might be time

we both get around 

to listening to

our conscience.

JIMINY CRICKET!