I Am Waiting

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 through 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 could 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 any body.

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 makes 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.

Next Story