Author Information
Two's a crowd
never been good in crowds
didn't have the feel for that
collective rush
felt more like...
dying
to tell the
truth
I recall once
an icy cold
winters day
the kids huddled
round the
schools front door
trying to
get out of
the bitter winds
the door is locked I
have no idea what the
adults were thinking
(maybe they
we're in their
own crowd)
unaware --
it was the coldest day
of the year
what I remember was
the kids knocking
pounding kicking
at the door
pressing
straining in
as one
"let us in"
someone said
immediately
others joined the
chorus yeah
let us
in
then someone shouted
"we don't need no .."
and unorchestrated the
crowd
took up the re-frain
"... education"
that was it the
spark that started the
(r)evolution
me i
didn't know the
song not
back then
anyway
not yet
initiated
but my body
has never forgotten
:hey there teacher's leave
those kids
alone"
i've never been the same since --
the irresistable press, the
sheer mass of
parka'd bodies pressing forward
synchronized according to
some (un)wholy,
unknown harmony
a terrifying unity of
dissent
and here
a whole generation later
at the
top of the
world you
tell me you want
t(w)o feel
needed and I feel
it again that old
tightening of the
chest
me i'm
thinking i
love U I
want U but
there ain't no
way I 'm
ever gonna let
myself "need"
U I('ve)
been working
half my life to
avoid losing my-
self
again
so here we
are in this
existential
stand-off
with our incommensurable
compromises
backs up
against the
proverbial wall
of our primal
necessities as
it were
a candle
between us a
fire
in the hearth against
the winters
wrath we
negotiate this, the
human con-
dition
i lift my
glass two the
to of us
not one yet
no longer quite
alone
on the coldest
night of the
year
