So, the first time I saw him was at the annual city festival
At the end of the plaza, on, uh
Punker Hill", also known as
The Island of Misfits
Um, It's like a mound of black leather and army
Surplus jackets and boots and spiky
Egg-white hairdos and mohawks and second generation
Exploited and Minor Threat and Sex Pistols patches and stuff
Basically a haven for the misunderstood
Punk-y, rock-y, goth-y, "woe is me" types
And, uh, there he was, right in the middle of it all
Um, oversized yellow form-rubber cowboy
Hat; pink plastic Toys-R-Us pistols and holster
Off-white dashiki, uh, shirt
And tattered bell bottom jeans
Leather feet, Raleigh cigarette finger stains
And he was an island within an
Island, and I just, kinda had to know more
So, I, uhh, I sat with him for hours just
Trying to get a bearing on his beautiful insanity
Every third inquiry was met with, you know
An eloquent but unusual response
And, you know, the subsequent exchange
It kinda warranted continuing the
Conversation, because he was, he was interesting
Uh, 'course the other
The other reason my efforts where dismissed
While he took in the constant flow of the festival crowd
All around us
A raging river of multi cultural river of music
Art, food, families, uh, all of this with his Walkman at full volume
I think it was Foreigner, playing through the headphones
And I asked maybe, you know
Hey maybe you could turn that down, so we can talk?", and he replied "
Can you hear me"? and I said
Yes", he said "
Well, then it's fine"
He never really pretended, not once
To be able to organize all of this chaos that was going on around us
Uh, he just unapologetically chose which pieces to focus on
Well, you know
After a few hours we seemed to have found our stride
Found our rhythm, kinda settled into it
And we're having these intermittent conversations
Uh, flipping back and forth between the chaos and the focus
And then, just kinda out of no where
He seemed to become a little unsettled and disturbed
And I asked him what was wrong and he just blurted out
Peanut parents in syrup"
And then he looked at me like I wondered what that means
And then he said
You have any, do you have any batteries?"
So Basically his, his walkman was running out of power
And he just needed batteries
So before I could ever turn and ask one of our fellow
Punkers for some double-A's, he grabbed my face with both hands
And then for the first time in the entire conversation
He, gave me his complete focus and attention
Completely present, and calmly said
We will never know world peace
Until three people can simultaneously
Look each other straight in the eye."
Should the oceans rise
Should the sky come falling down
Should the islands tremble beneath a sea of better nature blossoms
♪
Should the sun rain fire
Should Hell on Earth freeze over
And our enemies wait hungry
See our better nature feed them
Should the sun rain fire
Should Hell on Earth freeze over
And our enemies wait hungry
See our better nature feed and calm them
♪
Find a way (through, around, or over)
Find a way (through, around, or over)
Find a way (through, around, or over)
Find a way (through, around, or over)
♪
Find a way (through, around, or over)
(Around, or over, around, or over, around, or over)
Find a way (through, around, or over)
(Around, or over, around, or over, around)
Find a way (through, around, or over)