So, the first time I saw him was at the annual city festival
At the end of the plaza, on, uh, Punker Hill, also known as the island of misfits
Um, It’s like a mound of black leather and army surplus jackets and boots and spiky egg-white hairdos and mohawks
And second generation
Exploited and Minor Threat and Sex Pistols patches and stuff
Basically a haven for the misunderstood punk-y, rock-y, goth-y, what was me types

And, uh, there he was, right in the middle of it all
Um, oversized yellow form-rubber cowboy hat
Pink plastic Toys-R-Us pistols and holster
Off-white dashiki, uh, shirt, and tattered bell bottom jeans, leather feet, Raleigh cigarette finger stains
And he was an island within an island, and I just, kinda had to know more

So, I, uhh, I sat with him for hours just trying to get a bearing on his beautiful insanity
Every third inquiry was met with, you know, an eloquent but unusual response, and, you know, the subsequent exchange
It kinda warranted continuing the conversation, because he was, he was interesting
Uh, ‘course the other, the other reason my efforts where dismissed
While he took in the constant flow of the festival crowd, all around us

A raging river of multi cultural river of music, art, food, families, uh, all of this with his Walkman at full volume
I think it was Foreigner, playing through the headphones
And I asked maybe, you know, hey maybe you could turn that down, so we can talk?
And he replied can you hear me, and I said yes
He said well, then it’s fine
He never really pretended, not once, to be able to organize all of this chaos that was going on around us
Uh, he just unapologetically chose which pieces to focus on

Well, you know, after a few hours we seemed to have found our stride
Found our rhythm, kinda settled into it, and we’re having these intermittent conversations
Uh, flipping back and forth between the chaos and the focus
And then, just kinda out of no where, he seemed to become a little unsettled and disturbed
And I asked him what was wrong and he just blurted out keynote, parents and syrup
And then he looked at me like I wondered what that means, and then he said, you have any, do you have any batteries?

So basically his, his walkman was running out of power, and he just needed batteries
So before I could ever turn and ask one of our fellow punkers for some double-A’s
He grabbed my face with both hands, and then for the first time in the entire conversation
He, gave me his complete focus and attention, completely present, and calmly said
We will never know world peace, until three people can simultaneously look each other straight in the eye

Should the oceans rise
Should the sky come falling down
Should the islands tremble beneath a sea of better nature blossoms

Should the sun rain fire
Should Hell on Earth freeze over
And our enemies wait hungry
See our better nature feed them
Should the sun rain fire
Should Hell on Earth freeze over
And our enemies wait hungry
See our better nature feed and calm them

Find a way through, around, or over
Find a way through, around, or over
Find a way through, around, or over
Find a way through, around, or over

Find a way through, around, or over
Find a way through, around, or over
Find a way through, around, or over