Death Sentence

What do you do when a death sentence

Is handed down

And it turned out every breath had to be accounted for

In a ledger that raged and set off an automatic alarm system

Because the balance was too high to ever be repaid

In one lifetime?

You stand in the middle of the courtyard, look up and

Think:

I have walked every inch of this earth and beyond

Each city and countryside combed and smelled and loved

Like a dog enjoying blades of grass with his nose

Which knows the boundless, guiltless joy

Of roaming every capital and hicktown and planet created

Both on and off maps, radars and global positioning satellites
I have lived every permutation there is, was and will be
Tossing off judgement to the wind because

Everything has been paid eons ago

With glee and with blood

Anticipating the sadness

Man makes a ledger that is not honored elsewhere

(They don’t take Visa or MasterCard where we’re headed)

So, start digging

Inch by inch with your hands through sewer pipes underground

Bodies caked with mud, shit and grime

Only to surface clean, spotless

Immaculate,

Blue skies and freedom