They came for the Jews,
but I am not a Jew so I said nothing.
They came for the children,
but I am not a child so I kept quiet.
They took the trade unionists,
and I stood aside
because I am not a trade unionist.
The voice goes on
over the candle in barb-wire logo.
The voice goes on to say,
"When they came for me,
there was no one left to stand up.
When they came for me, I was alone."
A harmless man
wants to keep an empty mind.
He doesn't want to say much
about feminism or activism.
Maybe because these words
don't fit neatly into songs.
He will say this though:
Wouldn't it be better
if we all just lived togther
without doing harm?
It's not like he ever had it really good,
he likes to play guitar,
he's not one of the bad guys.
He wants to instill happiness
in whoever hears him sing.
He remains calm in himself
knowing this calmness will spread.
Recently he read
that energy from the pine needles
can be collected in fingertips.
We're walking along a busy road
and he says, "Is this a pine?"
And I say, "This is a pine
and that's another kind of pine over there."
My fingers are out now too,
pointing, believing in pine.
"Zap!" He collects energy.
Or is this how we make ourselves feel better?
Or is this how we make ourselves feel well?
We can single him out
when we're deciding
who is political enough,
and whose expression is more useful.
A harmless man
with an emptied mind
at the side of a busy road
in the rain, makes me laugh, saying zap.
His fingers on long pine needles.
Long pine needles.
And later tonight over hot cups of tea,
someone will give me
one more account of the demonstration,
one more account of the revolution.