American Soldiers drinking with boisterous and loud German women and men in a guesthouse. Celebrating the May festival in Stuttgart in 1978.

Drinking the  cognac and good beer.
One of the German men yelled “A toast and a song.”
He ordered a round of cognac for the table.

He raised his cup and spoke. “To peace and no more war.”
He begin to sing. ” If I was the King of the forest, I would have only friends, I would have no hunger and the people would dance and celebrate being alive.
Guns would be forgotten, war would because a myth.
If I was the king of the forest, people would not live with fear. All races and religion would be content. Murder and death forgotten. This would be my wish. If I was the king of the forest.”

He told us. “Toast to peace and utopia. I pray one day, these things will come.”

I left my celebrating friends. I wrote a poem.

If I was the king of the forest.

If I was the kind of the forest, my wishes would become true of peace and no war.
I closed my eyes.
Allowed my mind to travel to a summer day when youth was my wealth.

King of the forest, I would be,
where I was unstoppable and all dreams were in reach.

If I could,
be able to close my eyes again and be unafraid.
For when I close my eyes,
I don’t remember the victories,
I feel the burden of mistakes only.

If I was the King of the forest,
love would be forever,
love would be my only desire.

For if I was King of the forest,
no-one could stop me from saving the world from the hunger of greedy men
to destroy all things that are beautiful.

For If I was the king,
I would teach the child to love and to have great dreams,
I would erase thousand years of war and hate.

For if,
I could take away all the blood upon each hands,
maybe we could walk unafraid of other.

The King, I shall be,
only in set-up dreams.
For my world is like a wild beast,
running toward death.

And I the King,
can watch as drugs and alcohol steal all the hope and dreams of youth.
Rich men leading the world to a self-suicide,
bringing death and wounds to the young people learning to live.

I.
Will stand and watch,
for only in dreams shall I find the strength to battle,
for the words of the King.

Cannot be heard through the scream of the suffering.

Coyote
1978/re-write 2013