Nobel Prize - Kevin Devine

Are you a nightmare or an oracle

Unavoidable?

Are you the future, or a plausible

Worst-case scenario?

You’ve visited in my sleep

Every night this week

Curled yourself in my lap

And smiled while you spoke:

«Once we’ve poisoned all the water

Once we’ve blackened out the air

We’ll finish murdering each other

Fair is fair»

I tried to talk you down:

«There's a better half you’re not looking at

A greater empathy — «You shrugged me off

Talked over me:

«You & your simple life

Come at a complex price

And they’re busting through the gates

To steal it for themselves —

I say we razorblade the borders

Or even take the fight to them

Let’s go slaughtering the natives

Again

Or we can fire up the program

Let the drones do all the dirt

Might even win a Nobel Peace Prize

Well-deserved»

It’s every bit as ugly

Every bit as brutal

Every bit as dark as it’s light

Paralyzed, wondering why

While she’s dead asleep

I’m starving for protection

Pulled in all directions

Never certain which is the lie:

The elegance of being alive

Or the agony