SONG FROM KAUNAS

	"While Lithuanian children sing
	   Lithuanian's freedom will ring!"				
			    --folk saying

We will survive
To burn the flame of freedom
from Russia's reign

No soldier knows what's right or wrong
He'll beat your soul
He'll sing his song
A nation's pride and history
He loves himself for dignity
that wears so well on uniform
where blood fell
and fate has torn
his lie in two

Watching hammer/sickle beasts
Bodies thrown from red crossed doors
tortured for the right to know
What happened to independence
Who woke the dream
imposed the sentence
Our lives, our time
Not thrown to fate

We will survive
To burn the flame of freedom
from Stalin's reign

Kalanta, Kudirka, Zemaitis
All their fire burned for freedom's sake
They shout for one moment in time
stand strong together
braver thus
than legions of commandos
and their nocturnal thrusts

The puppeteer has no control
We've cut his strings
and sent his soul
away from this, our sacred ground
A holy place not meant to die
Where we hear truth 
and love abounds 
Into the future of our lives

We will survive
To burn the flame of freedom
from centuries reign

Fields of wheat, seas of amber
under a golden sun
green fields grow lush and fruitful
covering heroes' red blood
shed in past ages yet vital still
kept living in memory
or by looms' spinning wheel
whispering
silent secrets of partisans

We sing this song to open skies
across ancient pain
where love has cried
We hear the answer in ourselves
To keep this prayer and not forget
That independence will sustain

We will survive
To burn the flame of freedom
from Gorbachev's reign

With united voice we will insist
on a peaceful daytime and a 
night free from foreign tanks rumble
or the march of jackbooted feet
because "iron will melt to wax
and water will turn into stone
before we retreat"

The world hears these words we sing
They pray for us
Mind gifts they bring

We will survive
To burn the flame of freedom

(Co-Author: Brett Simpson)


THE GHOST OF MAYAKOVSKY

Mayakovsky
poet of politics and social change
pulls away from this century
in a smoke-screaming bi-plane
and drops bomb-bouquets all over
the frail maps of history.
Mayakovsky
ascends
trance ends
he returns us to
the essential energies of creation.
He reminds us
over and over
of how far we must go
in love
in light
in poetry
in revolution.


STOP THE MADNESS

the gun that shot Yitzhak Rabin
is the same gun that killed John Kennedy
and it's the same
the same gun
the same that got Bobby, too

the bullet that pierced Dr. King
is the same bullet that was found in Lee Harvey Oswald
it's the same
the same bullet
that John Wayne used in the movies

that killed all the bad guys
and it's the same
the same guys that assassinated Archbishop Romero
and six nuns in Chile

yes, it's a rifle
the same rifle that was used in Rambo
that was used in Vietnam
and is now used in Palestine

It's the same
the same rifle that Patty Hearst used
that was melted down and blew up the Oklahoma Federal Building
and other buildings in Sarajevo

It's the guns and the bullets and the rifles
in the movies
in the video arcades
in the hands of small children
in the pockets of terrorist
in the caches of governments and armies

Kęstutis Pocius lives in South Bend, Indiana, with his wife Toni and their two children. Kestutis is an architect and urban planner. He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame with a degree in architecture and a master's degree in environic design.