Nowhere But Down

By Paul R. Abramson

I have no traction

no satisfaction

no girlie action

And why 

Why

Does death 

have to be

the surrender 

of a Resistant will

where hate 

Now chosen

and cultivated

Has become a way of life

One funeral 

at a time

Where ambiguity

Has traded places 

with truth

and the pulse 

Of triviality

Remains inscrutable

Where veneer 

Is fetishized

As reality has fled

And poverty persists

Through the art

Of manipulation

And the extinguishable regrets

Of being down

Means to surrender

Any temptation to rise again

As police officers speak

But say very little

Except with pistols

Which have no voice at all

But do imply; incidentally, at least

There is no place but down

That strange comingling of poverty and hate.

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Nowhere But Down - Photo by Paul R. Abramson

Paul R. Abramson is the lead singer and lyricist of the band Crying 4 Kafka. A short documentary of the first decade of Crying 4 Kafka is now entered in Film Festivals throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.