if you go back down in the bowels of my archive, you can read my John Lennon eulogy written in October ... I did think that this is very good.

Virginia

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The War Is Not Over

Twenty-five years ago today
I sat in my living room
Listening to 'Double Fantasy'
And cried

John had said
That the war was over
If we wanted it to be
And now he was dead

John had said
That once he was the walrus
But now he was just John
And now John was dead

The irony was not lost on me
As I thought
Of the last words and acts
Of our great leaders and fallen idols
And the, sometimes, dark truths
Behind their fame

An assassinated Gandhi
Alienated from his sons
Guilty about his sexuality
Unable to bring his dream
To all Indians

An assassinated King
Adulterer, plagiarizer
An imperfect saint
Unable to reach the mountaintop
With his flock

John died for our sins
As did Gandhi
And King
And so many others

He thought
That he had
Gotten away
Clean
At the end

But
We wouldn't
Let him
Get off
That easy

Like Crazy Horse
We couldn't
Let him
Go in peace

He was our hero
He had said too much
He had bled too much
To stop bleeding
For us now

He had to bleed out
He had to hang
On the cross
Of our need
And our greed

No
The war is not over
And no one
Can declare it so
And no one
Can leave

There really is
Nowhere to run
And nowhere to hide

And what we see
Really is
What we get

John was wrong
To think
That he could exchange
The fantasies of the masses
For the fantasies
Of his own making

But he was right
To imagine
A better world

And we are right
To join
In that imagining

But not
As vampires
Demanding the blood
Of imaginary heroes

But as individuals
Who are willing
To pick up
Our own crosses
To follow
Our own paths
Together

The war is not over
And it may never be

But we can
Become
Better soldiers
For peace

We can
Stop
Following fantasies
And imaginary heroes

We can
Stop
Sacrificing
The best among us
On the alter
Of our need

And we can
Help the world
To truly live
As one

Jim Bush
Portland, Oregon