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I Am Waiting BY LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI
I am waiting for my case to come up and I am waiting
for a rebirth of wonder and I am waiting for someone
to really discover America and wail
and I am waiting for the discovery
of a new symbolic western frontier and I am waiting
for the American Eagle to really spread its wings
and straighten up and fly right and I am waiting
for the Age of Anxiety to drop dead
and I am waiting for the war to be fought
which will make the world safe for anarchy
and I am waiting for the final withering away
of all governments and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for the Second Coming and I am waiting
for a religious revival to sweep thru the state of Arizona
and I am waiting for the Grapes of Wrath to be stored
and I am waiting for them to prove
that God is really American and I am waiting
to see God on television piped onto church altars
if only they can find the right channel
to tune in on and I am waiting
for the Last Supper to be served again with a strange new appetizer
and I am perpetually awaiting a rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for my number to be called and I am waiting
for the Salvation Army to take over and I am waiting
for the meek to be blessed and inherit the earth
without taxes and I am waiting
for forests and animals to reclaim the earth as theirs
and I am waiting for a way to be devised
to destroy all nationalisms without killing anybody
and I am waiting for linnets and planets to fall like rain
and I am waiting for lovers and weepers to lie down together again
in a new rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for the Great Divide to be crossed and I am anxiously waiting
for the secret of eternal life to be discovered by an obscure general practitioner
and I am waiting for the storms of life
to be over and I am waiting
to set sail for happiness and I am waiting
for a reconstructed Mayflower to reach America
with its picture story and tv rights sold in advance to the natives
and I am waiting for the lost music to sound again
in the Lost Continent in a new rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for the day that maketh all things clear
and I am awaiting retribution for what America did
to Tom Sawyer and I am waiting
for Alice in Wonderland to retransmit to me
her total dream of innocence and I am waiting
for Childe Roland to come to the final darkest tower
and I am waiting for Aphrodite
to grow live arms at a final disarmament conference
in a new rebirth of wonder
I am waiting to get some intimations
of immortality by recollecting my early childhood
and I am waiting for the green mornings to come again
youth's dumb green fields come back again and I am waiting
for some strains of unpremeditated art to shake my typewriter
and I am waiting to write the great indelible poem
and I am waiting for the last long careless rapture
and I am perpetually waiting for the fleeing lovers on the Grecian Urn
to catch each other up at last and embrace
and I am awaiting perpetually and forever
a renaissance of wonder