BOWIN’ IN THE WIND? (weekly poem)

BOWIN’ IN THE WIND?  

Bob Dylan’s song ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ asks,“How many years

can some people exist, before they’re ALLOWED to be free?”

Who are these people who’ll sometime,

ALLOW me to be free? (1)

And will they always be right there,

A-watching over me?

And what if they all change their minds,

And cancel their consent?

Will they in their benevolence,

ALLOW me to dissent?

My freedom’s worthless if it’s at,

Another’s beck and call;

Paternalists who might ALLOW,

Have no real worth at all.

My freedom is my own affair

I need no others leave;

Those that ALLOW give nothing but,

A freedom to deceive.

So let me say, so’s not to put,

Too fine a point on it;

Those who ALLOW, ain’t really worth,

A bucketful of spit.

So Mr Dylan get it right,

As Zimmerman’s your name; (2)

ALLOW me to help rid you of,

Your mental Zimmer Frame!

(1) “I hope you don’t mind, but I took the liberty of

taking away your freedoms. – Uncle Sam”, quoted from,

‘This is the best book I’ve ever written, and it still sucks’ by Jarod Kintz.

(2) Bob Dylan’s birth name was Robert Zimmerman.

He took his stage-name from Welsh poet Dylan Thomas

who died in 1953 after a drunken session in New York.

© Richard Layton