Rite of Passage

Day of mourning, day of sorrow,
Take the ashes of our agéd fathers,
Who taught us to hate better than they knew,
And met their ends in a burst of flame.

Take too the ashes of our loving mothers,
Who passed on after their angry husbands;
And our brothers and sisters, who couldn't resist us.

Take the ashes of our loyal friends,
Who shouldn't have trusted such as us,
And the ashes of those who loved us truly.

And last of all take, day of evil and shame,
The cold black flakes of our murdering souls.

—San Diego, California
1970