As I lay with Head in your Lap, Camerado

As I lay with my head in your lap, Camerado,
The confession I made I resume--what I said to you in the open air I resume:
I know I am restless, and make others so;
I know my words are weapons, full of danger, full of death;
(Indeed I am myself the real soldier;
It is not he, there, with bayonet, and not the red-striped artilleryman;)
For I confront peace, security, and all the settled laws, to unsettle them;
I am more resolute because all have denied me, than I could ever have been had all
accepted me;
I heed not, and have never heeded, either experience, cautions, majorities, nor ridicule;
And the threat of what is call'd hell is little or nothing to me;
And the lure of what is call'd heaven is little or nothing to me;
...Dear camerado! I confess I have urged you onward with me, and still urge you,
without the least idea what is our destination,
Or whether we shall be victorious, or utterly quell'd and defeated.


by Walt Whitman

Point A Bulletin

The trees look lovely in the sunlight
but I'm staring at the ground
the kids are coming back to college
but I live here all year round
without a full education
do I have anything to say
all this talk about destination
but I forgot about Point A
a point I thought I made
but I made it a point to try
and nothing anybody has to say
is gonna make me ever bat an eye
I used to keep my eyes closed
at these fireworks displays
and know where I've pictured in my mind
to throw the truth away
and what's so proudly that I am
at Point A
a point I thought I made
but I made it a point to say
that nothing in the world
has ever made certain that
rocknroll is ever gonna get in the way
so I pick up the pace
to find a road to take
to get home before
the streetlights
go out again
the trees look lovely in the moonlight
and the shadows that they cast
are just as lovely as the feeling
of talking about the past
and knowing everything is on track
because there is a beginning
and there is an end
there is a line and
I am drawing it again
it's like I never missed it
and it never missed me
and it doesn't matter
if there ever will be
a Point B.