Give me absolute control

over every living soul.

Give me back the Berlin Wall.

Give me Stalin and St. Paul.

I’ve seen the future, brother;

it is murder.

 

—Leonard Cohen, “The Future”

 

 

 In ’89, the Wall came down, a new flag in the wind,

we watched Jesus Jones on MTV;

this is it, we cheered, and swayed with the crowd,

right here, right now, this is how it begins.

In ’91, the walls came down in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,

the world woke up on a morning in May

to a history, a story; a cold dark wind.

Can the wind be dark, do we know where it ends.

The way it began, has it been ever since.

We went fishing that day,

we brought poles and bought bait;

the bait came in packets with a small warning label.

We were fishing for catfish, there was wind on the lake.

We caught seventeen fish then it started to rain.

Can the wind be dark, does darkness bend.

The way we began, have we been ever since.

We brought in the coolers and turned on the TV.

We had seventeen fish to be gutted and skinned.

On the screen there were pictures;

rows and rows of sweet-faced young men.

The world woke up, right there, right then,

in a place where it’s dark and the place where it bends;

doesn’t make you a fish, ‘cause you’re wet and you swim.

The tackle box was open and out on the table.

There were lures, there was bait;

on the news, we heard words like “acid” and “limbs”.

The packets of bait had a small warning label.

Not for human consumption, it said

and if we are lucky that’s only the wind;

I don’t fish anymore.

Not ever since.

 

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