Poem, BEWARE

https://youtu.be/YWTvZUdalio?si=94sDK9n0vV_ZFPrK

Who runs the underworld?

Who holds the cards?

Who decides who does what

And where they do it at?

Charles Manson said

It was him, in an interview,

But I don’t personally believe

Charles Manson was doing it.

I have been wrong before,

I could be wrong again.

The motorcycle and the sleeping bag,

Sure, absolutely,

And ten or fifteen girls,

Well, why not, people do it.

And not wanting to take your time

Going to work for someone else’s money?

I think most people

Can relate to those sentiments.

But all the money in the world?

And making the money, man?

Actually rolling the nickels

At your personal mint?

Not on your life, Charles Manson.

I do not believe you

And it says something profound

That however many girls,

Be they ten or fifteen girls,

Kept on listening, kept believing

That this man who could boast

Neither bed, job, nor car

Ran the underworld, guy,

And held all the cards.

(You know, surely, at some point,

When he was sitting in prison

With a swastika carved deep

Into his forehead

He has have to have had

At least one real moment

Where he saw that the game wasn’t his

And that being a teenybopper

Wouldn’t have been that all bad

In comparison to the jail time

And the swastika forehead, etc.)

But who does run the underworld?

Who does hold the cards?

Who does decide who does what

And where they do it at?

Those are the sorts of questions

Sure to drive a person mad.

Is it the government? The UN?

Is it some kind of cabal?

Is it me? Is it you?

Is it, you know, the those guys?

The guys folks keep saying

That it is and getting in trouble?

Or is nobody holding the cards?

Is the underworld unrun?

Is who does what and where they do it at

Not really a decision?

Is it actually a multitude

Of angry, sad individuals

Making do with limited information

And varying levels of self control?

Which is for sure the scariest answer,

If it really does so happen

That we’re stuck between chaos incarnate

And twelve thousand nuclear weapons.

And I suppose that when a man

Says it’s not that, it’s me; I am,

I can see some people buying it,

People massively disquieted about the world.

Not heaps and heaps of people,

Something like ten or fifteen girls.