Reportback on yesterday's protest "Let Marjah Live"

At yesterday's demo, I was having trouble coming up with chants that fit the mouthful "Afghanistan" into any kind of beat. So I sort-of accidentally wrote this poem. I call it "What rhymes with Aghanistan?"

Afghanistan, Afghanistan
more lies about the Taliban
Obama's on TV again
oh, Afghanistan.

Quick- what rhymes with civilian population?
Complete and total devastation
(Oh, Afghanistan)

What's a pipeline doing running
right through the middle of our foreign policy?
Don't know? (really?)
Well, just ask any Afghan citizen
(Oh, Afghanistan, Afghanistan)

They're selling war at every convience store
and all the prices just went up again.
Oh, Afghanistan
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Ok, all humor aside, my heart goes out to those families in Marjah. Thanks everybody who made it out to the protest. Now we build for March 20th!

Make New Friends

For that dam-breaking sense
of acceptance
the SURGE of interest
in a world outside ourselves so big
it holds everything as one

I've come to learn what you can teach me
and to show you these things that I've seen
to tell you the story in this, the only way that I know how
and to deliver the message:
that you are not alone, my friend
you have allies in the hear and now

Let us begin, let us discover
what we can about ourselves and each other
because together we are greater
than any # of our individual weaknesses combined

Let's find some new way to communicate
that other's can emulate for years to come
what we created
carried on

Because our voices carry us forwards
and yours soars
I heard you from across this concrete jungle
like a lion roars
It brought me striding through
new open doors to find you
to contribute to the collective mind
that you remind me I belong to
A choir of sorts
and maybe not angels, but agents of change
and I don't think that's so small a charge
when you consider the great pain of living
the daily overcoming that it is to be alive
to choose this path, gladly, and say

"It was nice to meet you"
Which simply does not convey my excitement,
my tongue-tied desire to begin, so until next time
my friend, until next time.

It was sort of a crash and burn scenario

        Let me tell ya, when you hit a
        brick wall it doesn't always
        stop you-it's just in the way.

I was HIGH as a kite, and good thing too
cause it was all that        lying        
                              under      -inner-
L.A.N.G.U.A.G.E.
mumbo-jumbo, you know?
critical thinking questions
-thick stuff-

I was paying my most adamant attention, thinking
I am thi--s close to shutting  the whole
                                              thing
(so don't you dare me)          down.
I wasn't going to be affected
by the weather anymore
I was in for

                                   a lesson, alright.