Let it Burn

Sometimes I feel like losing everything would be a relief.

I'll try to explain.

I didn't have to work at an unearthly hour this morning so I was able to sleep in a bit and wake up slow. I think that I had a dream that my entire life changed. Everything that I knew was gone and I had to begin again - maybe I was transported to a new place, maybe I was thrown into a different time, maybe there was some kind of disaster - I'm not sure what happened. I just remember feeling utterly alone.

When I was fully conscious I really really wanted to listen to this song.



People throwing dinars at the belly-dancers
In a sad circus by a trench of burning oil
People throw belongings; a lifetime's earnings
Amongst the scattered rubbish and suitcases on the sidewalk

Date palms and orange and tangerine trees
With eyes that're crying for everything
(Let it burn! Let it burn, burn, burn...)

So I talked to an old man by the generator
He was standing on the gravel by the fetid river
He turned to me and answered, "Baby, see."
Said, "War is here in our beloved city."

Some dove in the river and tried to swim away
Through tons of sewage; they had written on their foreheads
Date palms and orange and tangerine trees
With eyes that're crying for everything

Let it burn, let it burn!
Let it burn, let it burn!
Let it burn, let it burn!
Let it burn, let it burn!

Obviously, it would be hyper-dramatic to compare our lives with those of the people in this song, but I can't help but feel the desire to take the people I love by the hand and jump into that sewage-filled river. On the far bank we would look back at the materialism, the over complication, the skewed social hierarchy, the broken politics, the cookie cutter lifestyles that we had left behind and we would chant, "Let it burn! Let it burn, burn, burn...".

We would then taste something different.