20th century / schizoid man

Tags

2010, 2014, 20th century, 6*, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Allen Ginsberg, Chile, China, freedom, Gulag Archipelago, Have, history, Howl, imprisonment, Lhasa, living, Montgomery, others, Pinochet, Port Elizabeth, Rosa Parks, Saigon, Santiago, society, Steve Biko, Thich Quang Duc, Vietnam

cover(s) to “Court of the Crimson King” by King Crimson, painted by Barry Godber (1946-1970)

20th century
schizoid man

                                              … I am Rosa Parks
                tired of having to give way even though I am sitting on the right seat in Montgomery
                                I am Steve Biko
                still chanting with my bloodied lip face down on the cell floor in Port Elizabeth
                                                              I am Solzhenitsyn
                                              blowing warmth onto my hands far far across the Archipelago
                                              I am the Chilean mother
with pictures of my sons tied around my neck in Santiago
                                                                                 I am a Vietnamese family
                                              split up and adrift on several boats in the South China seas
I am a silent Thich Quang Duc
                                              sitting by the Austin Westminster
                                I used to be a monk
                now I am a tourist around the restored Jokhang in Lhasa, China
                                                              I am a ‘best minds of my generation’
                                succumbed to madness

21st century schizoid man by ivankorsario; found on deviant art

                                                              and I howl
                                              silently
                                against the society that put me in this cell
                                                              and told me I am free
                                                              I am tired but I push on
                                                                                 even pick up the pace a little
                although I forget: I am weak
                                              no one cheers me on
                                              others only notice
                                                              when I stumble