Not Quite Silence
(C)2001 Jumpy

I walk along the streets at night, it's brighter than a day,
a million colors hurt my eye, they're each and every way.
It's been like this - all December, nowhere left to run,
not just the stores, in every window hangs a shining sun,

Trees ablaze with blinking lights, plastics everywhere,
everything's in swirling motion, everything's aflare.
A multitude of melodies, none of them for real,
invented for a tiny chapel, not a dome of steel;

I ask them...

what about the silence, what about some creature's pain;
what about the spirit, where does  that come in again?
what about compassion, what about the unseen plight?
blankly staring faces, and a choir sings "silent night".

Down at the mall, all newly built, all concrete and glass,
a giant tree is hung with metal, tingling as I pass,
Noone thinks about its meaning -So it seems to me
this really is a worldwide contest for the tallest tree!

I ask them ...

(repeat refrain)