The hardest part is giving up

giving up on my toys and buttons

my rags   my bags

my need for female companionship

my love for Ben and Jerry’s ice cream

my constant getting in and out of a car

that slowly kills a planet that’s

dying

anyway   I’ve given up on algebra

finding a copy of Exposure that isn’t scratched

or finishing The Castle

it doesn’t have significance

I have given up on my teeth

I’ve given up trying to free my house of ants

I’ve given up on fixing my country

because there’s too many

fucking assholes swarming

they shovel sand into any mouth speaking freedom

I have given up on America

Fuck America

that’s the easy part

I have also given up on England   Mexico   Iraq   Iran

Saudi Arabia   Gambia   Japan

I have let my dreams out of India

they go walking through the Centaurus

crossing swords with comets

I have given up on suicide

I have given up on straightening out my desk

maybe someday after we stop calculating

time by passage from a forged idol

someone will scratch the true surface of pain

the soul of a giving up that took more effort

than fishing or picking berries

or building a fire

And we’ll all be one

all the Israelis   the Kurds

the gays   the Catholics

the politicians

the men hunting whales

buried in the hardest ground.