WAKE-UP CALL

for Chris Bache

      Awakening—what better metaphor
      to illustrate how human consciousness
      can open wide perception’s shuttered door
      then to new thoughts and visions gain access?
    
      For it implies we’re walking in our sleep,
      the lives we lead no more than idle dreams,
      too often nightmares bound to make us weep
      until the promise of new morning gleams.

      Dark night gives way to early dawn so we
      may see our battered world in a new light,
      envisioning a saner way to be
      beyond our culture’s chaos and the blight
      our willful waywardness has led us to—

      Wake now!  Arise!  For we have much to do.

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