Simultaneous

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, and there he was, right in the middle of it all

Um, oversized yellow foam-rubber cowboy hat

And, 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, cause 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 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 would know 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 us

See our better nature blossom

Should the Sun rain fire

Should Hell on Earth freeze over

And our inner beast wake hungry

See our better nature feed them

Should the Sun rain fire

Should Hell on Earth freeze over

And our inner beast wake 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

Find a way through, around, or over

Find a way through, around, or over