for Jack Kerouac (1922-69) <br /> <br />Jack the America of your dreams is gone <br />Gone the brownstone tenements of the night <br />Gone the empty coffee houses of lonely evenings and silence <br />Gone the boxcars and hoboes and prayers to St Teresa <br />Gone the warmth of a blazing fire on a winter night. <br />Jack the America you loved has become <br />the America of senseless noise <br />the America of arrogant impositions <br />the America of threat and aggression <br />the America of brutality <br />the America of broken hearts and broken promises. <br />An insect feeding on the world <br />suckling greedily demanding more <br />deaf to the voice of reason and temperance. <br />Jack come back <br />bring back with you the America even outsiders loved <br />the America of open highways <br />the America of boundless forests <br />the America of sunsets by the river-pier <br />an America generous of spirit. <br />The planet needs this America. <br />Jack bring back your magic <br />and banish our nightmares. <br />Bring back your gentleness <br />and teach America how to be free. <br /> <br />3.viii.2007.<br /><br />Jim McDonald<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/gentleness-5/
