Head Games Poem by Patti Masterman

You can sleep underwater, but the blankets float away
You can sleep through your whole life, while the shooter steals the day;
Make believe you can't see all the bullets flying past,
Put the blinders on again to make the moment last.

You can run away from trouble and lie your way to peace,
Can wear the dark sunglasses and miss seeing the disease
And strip away your rights, so there's no one left to blame;
Pretend your cohort's wars don't dismember, blind, and maim.

And while you're busy wiring your own brain, selectively,
The whole world too is marching the same way, collectively.
And when your little corner of the world erupts in flames,
They will have perfected all your tidy, neat head games.