empty pews

children tired of waiting
wafer thin parables
empty pews

they drifted through
educational institutions
and music stores
book fairs and
antique shops
armed with questions
and student loans

'if we don't chart a new course
we'll end up where we're headed'

they settled
like dust into those
basic places, jobs that
pay bills and afford plenty of
time for passion
bringing glimmers of joy
into being

'it's not blind resistance to progress
but resistance to blind progress'

we're young
but old enough to
remember the orchards
before they were cut and burnt
old enough to remember
the magic of salmon spawns
and seeing that first satelite
floating amongst the stars

i like to think that
we share these memories
of silent afternoons playing with
lego in the mid 8o's unaware
of the emerging debt crisis
cresting on the back of a
chemical agricultural revolution
that shackled the majority
world farmers to dollars

i know that i'm not alone
in having left a home
to drift

as i look around
i see myself in
the fire within
your eyes

the time
is now