I'm Off the Bus

I'm off the bus,
and I guess that's
what ultimately
separates me
from the last age
of poetry where
I would actually
fit in.

Don't get me wrong,
I'm sure a lot of
really fantastic
stuff's being
written right now,
but really, if
no one knows,
if it's being
done in the same
vacuum I inhabit,
what does it
count for, a
movement of
Dickensons?

Forgive me
if I don't
relish that
thought.

But forty years ago,
things were really
happening, and it
wasn't until I saw
Easy Rider
that I truly
understand
the fundamental
divide that culture
brought to
the landscape.

These people were
every bit one for
themselves. They
were distanced from
everything around them
not because they
were trying to be,
but because that's
what the culture
made them become.

They had found
a new way
to be themselves,
and that's what
they were doing,
and darned if
everyone didn't
get on the bus
with them.

That's the real
problem, of course.

Everyone got on
the bus.

When the revolution
is institutionalized,
it's no longer
a revlution.
This is not to say
that the revolution
was successful.

A revolution
is not necessarily
meant to change
the world,
but to broaden it.

Communism, for
popular example,
easy to understand.
People embraced that
and it fucked things up
real good.

Cars are another
good one, but
people don't know
that one because
they only know it
as a convenience,
not as the hindrance
it is. They may
kid themselves
and slap it into
their notions
of mankind's great effect
on the world around them,
but they don't
understand how
drastically it's
shaped and corrupted
everyday life,
condemned it
to slavery.

No, I don't propose
to burn all the petrol
and the metal monsters
who feed on it,
but to think rationally
again, to lose the
revolution,
to redefine it
for what it was
originally intended
to be.

I'm not on the bus
because I don't think
anyone knows what
that bus is anymore.
The bus is not a car,
is not a single constipation
on the road, but a means
of uniting interests
across a vast expanse,
the one we've utterly
claimed and staked
as our own,
pretending we've
taken everything
but overlooking
all the pretty horses
that still roam free.

So no, I'm not on the bus,
not until people start
to realize
how stupid they are
and smarten up.

Take your car
and meet the bus,
and reclaim
the revolution.