Playing Risk on Acid

I’ve read Jimi Hendrix was great at playing Risk,

the board game where you try to take over the world,

  high on acid.

Makes sense –

first, he was the army –

they were taking orders from the guys in charge,

plotting to make other people’s countries all their own –

plus they gave soldiers drugs with their guns.

Then he was a hippie –

drugs went with flower power

like biscuits go with tea.

  I had this cool picture of tripping –

  I’d float high over this soul-sucking chair,

 go right out of this tired mind, find peace,

 make love not war.

 Maybe I was wrong – 

 maybe I’d take all the built-up bad vibes out

on the nearest country, instead.

Maybe that’s what Jimi did –

maybe that’s what all the suits at the top do, too.

Some say acid lets you into places you’d normally never see.

I’ve got a bad feeling we’re living in some big boss’s

idea of a happy high.

Tell me how to come down softly,

before we tear each other apart over nothing,

heads full of dreams not worth dying for.