This is easy:
I am the wind
I am the rock
I am the water
I am the forest
This is hard:
I am the concrete
I am the car
I am the sewer
I am the city
When the killers shoot
I am responsible
Name your murderer
and you name me
I grieve for the victims
I grieve for the dead
I grieve for the living they left
And:
I grieve for the pilots
I grieve for the soldiers
I grieve for the clerks
I grieve for the cooks
I grieve for the workers
who build all the weapons
and I grieve for their bosses
who give them the orders
How can I not?
This too is me
I don't believe there's a prison in the sky
where the sinners will burn
and not me
There are torturers in this world
genocidal maniacs
mass murderers
firing squads
There are those who deal death at a distance
button-pushers
order-givers
There are those who kill up close
enforcers
grunts
There are people who kill in anger
and people whose blood stays cold
This is the world I live in
my world
all of it
Every war is a civil war
every murder a suicide
I am the killer
I am the killed
The sun is shining
and a little white cloud
serves only to contrast the blue
Good flying weather
How can I say this day is beautiful?
But it is
I hate presidents more than generals
missiles more than bombs
rifles more than handguns
knives more than fists
I hate anything that muffles
the awesome responsibility
which tells you the person you're killing
is human
This is easy:
I am the artist
I am the grower
I am the mystic
I am the lover
This is hard:
I am the jailer
I am the thief
I am the sadist
I am the killer
When will I be free?