Present tense

Present tense

A jolt of energy
sprints across a hazy room
waking a crowd from
the tired nervousness from
a week of anxiety of
stress of apathy towards
just being

Serious faces fill with
humility and care
concentration locked in
speaking through a gaze

Squished boxed cramped in
tight people flock to hear
to experience to be a part of
the sensation the history
the story

Walls adorned with
pictures and records and
awards and calendars and
newspapers on the half
eroded walls preserving
monuments of the past

Food huddling across the
deep room carrying comfort
and feeding the hunger the
deep hunger for food and
for thought to know

and the thoughts
they carry so much
hope want need for
more than truth for
more than just plain
existence

Can you hear?
Are you there?
Are you living;
or existing?

Hurry hurry hurry
turns to relax relax
relax participate

Larger than life a
human speaks and
tells their life through
just one note

Larger than life a
human responds to
this story of hope of
loss of redemption
and though the two
might never meet there
is a true understanding
an empathy for someone
else other than them

and hearing oh
hearing the purity
the purity of the anger
casting out smoke screaming
for attention bashing the
injustice declaring peace

and hearing experiencing
the love the true unbiased
love and wonder for it all
the relationships the
sounds the map through
sounds and the simple
bluntness of being
honest in the now

and the squeal the
honk the whinny the
coo the ahh the shh
the cackle the hush
the cough the plunk
the pop the crash
the taa the daa
the dee the dum
the zzz the zap
the whoosh the boom;
the light bringing forth
shadows from the
inside out

Present tense life
demands improvisation

And improvisation;
well it demands present tense life.