Siddhartha

If I only had a strong mind
I could wait a long time.
I could wait a while to get somewhere.

I saw the bruises on his skin
but I couldn’t recall a thing
and he wouldn’t tell me whether it was me.
I was trembling like a bomb
when I dropped him with his mom
and I drove all night to fly from Kennedy.

How long have I been sleeping?
When will I be awake?
How long have I been sleeping?

At the airport in Japan
I felt so sick I couldn’t stand
and the whiskey prices bled me to the bone.
All the people all seemed to nod
and greet me like a god
but all I wanted was a place to be alone.

How long have I been sleeping?
When will I be awake?
Why is everybody looking for something in my eyes?
Don’t they realize there’s nothing there to take?

At the temple, at the gate
the master made me wait.
They took my clothes and cut off all my hair.
I must have sat out there for hours
alone among the flowers.
Till all I wanted was to keep on sitting there.

How long have I been sleeping?
When will I be awake?
Is there really something lying hidden in my eyes?
I never realized it was there for me to take.

Now the days fly fast. They fly so fast
and I can’t get to the bottom of all my shit.
But I feel my self at last, at last
and I think that I can be with it
if all I have to do is sit
and watch my life float past.

I fought and I have raged.
Oh, I know I am no a sage
like him who sat beneath the Bodhi Tree.
But sometimes I feel us fuse
like I’m walking in his shoes
and I hear his words as if they came from me.

He says, “The world just keeps sleeping.
But the world one day will wake.
Oh, come on people, open up your eyes,
I mean, open up your eyes.
Don’t you realize the world is yours to make?
Come on people, open up your eyes,
Don’t you realize the world is yours to make?

And if you have a strong mind
you can wait a long time.
You can wait a while to get somewhere.

Tam Lin