A servant to civility, Annie took an oath
to kangaroo nobility, she grew to loathe.
To sacrifice, to tax and vice, to arrogance without the price.
And someone who denies it cannot be conquered by it.
The cross-eyed fish denied her wish, no echo from the sky.
Guideposts gone, her compass her own, she found the answer why.
Born again with original sin, back to where she’s always been,
her morality in one word: I.
So now she sells her bumper-stickers on a beach.
She’s gotten out of touch, Annie’s finally out of reach
And you can read her reason on the streets.
Oh when Annie shrugs, she shrugs for keeps.
Bacardi, Jack, and Cuervo, too, don’t redo the heart once true.
Third person lies, relations die. Indentured servitude.
Trust assailed, self prevailed, damn the thought: “It’s just as well.”
The rope of guilt foregone.
[Bridge]
As those she knows are equalized, in sudden stages,
Ineffectualized, at closer ages.
The poets are the first to leave, but Annie’s something to achieve:
Her sense of life; philosophy.
So now she sells her bumper-stickers on a beach.
No compromise, no moral breach.
Where the sand meets the sea meets the sky
Annie found her reason why.
She prints it on the streets.
Cash only - no receipts.
Annie looks real hard, shrugs, and leaps.
Bumper-stickers on a beach.
Where the sand meets the sea meets the sky
Annie found her reason why.
Stephen’s Reason, 2008