Desk, chair, paper, pencil, desk.
Scratching on a clipboard what makes you

wrong.
Listening for a shrill cry
of someone on the other line
saying my boy, my boy where will he go?
Oh, sweet mealticket, do not fear
we will take him (gently) by the ear
to a place no one can hear
him screaming inside his own head.
If a padded cell and a strait jacket isn't enough,
a few thousand milligrams of whatever this is
should do just fine to shut him up.
And as long as all goes to plan,
soon enough he'll be shaking hands
with a man 
in a desk.

This is not help
This is upper-middle class fake concern
Your left hand behind your back
Fingers crossed so it doesn't count
If you fuck up because
"All you're trying to do
Is help".

Sustaining life does not entail
suffocating idiosyncracies
because they're not what you're used to.

Sustaining life is not sitting 12 hours
behind a box set
"Damn, that's too bad
I'll post about it on Facebook."
Because then some more people will know
about the unjust it is
that

1. nearly one-point-four million children die
each year
due to lack of access to clean drinking water
and basic sanitation

because then some more people will know
that

2. Africa accounts for
ninety percent of malarial deaths
worldwide

because then some more people will know
that

3. about two million children are exploited
into the sex trade industry
every year

because then some people will know
and hey maybe someone might think
about doing something about it.

Sustaining life is providing active love for life.
it's giving to give and not to recieve,
it's accepting that we all deserve time to be alive on this earth
no matter our luck
or color
or intelligence
or species.

Sustaining life is selling your desk 
to buy a plane ticket to a developing country
and distributing immunizations.

Sustaining life is breaking your desk apart
for parts to build a shelter
or perhaps a school.

What is being alive if you are not really living?
I see hiding behind a big mahogany
desk
for fourty-something years
in the same small town
with a pencil behind your ear
Just the same as
lying on a hospital bed
for forty-something years
with your food brought to your side
and cotton in your ears.

Listening is the first step.
Only action creates reaction.
I want to be the catalyst
to something big
I want to change my life
by improving the lives of others.
Only action creates reaction.
I want to break the chains
so he knows it's okay
to be wrong sometimes
And I want to show him a way
to express what's inside
And I need to get outside
of this town, of this country
and see the great big world
we all inhabit equally
because what would life be
If I spent fourty-something years
sitting behind a desk
and wondering?