Hourglass Land
(Heads in the Sand, Again and Again)

Feel the ups and downs
as we make the rounds
cross our cities and towns
in ragged tux and gown
searching lost and founds
for our misplaced crowns
all our splendid renown

Now with ears to the ground
and with future unwound
do we stumble and drown
a well-armed tragic clown
in the desert quicksands
of the foreign lands
where we've armed the clans
and taken bloody last stands
so that American brands
make billions of grands
always fist over hand
from the captive demand

With our heads in the sand
again and again
taking a stand
for Hourglass Land.

Tumbling through
the Land of the Hourglass
sucked down with the sands
of its moral morass
sifting and sinking
sympathetic to the last
not immune to the grit
of the constant sandblast
unaware of the Hand
that will soon turn the glass
upside down reset
to an unrecognized past
to start all over
with the same old cast
who'll wonder how it all
went downhill so fast.

It's the fall rise and fall
of a perpetual wall
temporary amnesia
in minds wise and small
going back and forth
in a dead-end hall
and we're all invited
to that Sandman's Ball
inside the glass
that has us enthralled
we'll try to hold on
for ourselves and for all
but can anything change
that we're in for a fall

With our heads in the sand
again and again
taking a stand
for Hourglass Land
to start all over
with the same old cast
who'll wonder how it all
went downhill so fast.

It's never too late
to break free at last
but be careful while picking up
pieces of glass

Larry Piltz
Indian Cove
Austin, Texas

Artwork by Larry Ray at http://theihandbill.blogspot.com/