out of urgent need

we wait for changes out of urgent need
there is no fire that rages in your heart
that can compare in its least futile part
to the red lion's desperate raw greed
but if you speak or even if you bleed
you cannot hope to make the smallest start
of alteration that's another art
on which the human spirit has to feed
each normal process happens at a pace
which leads the calmest into constant strife
for when things alter they are never slow
the whole thing's just an everlasting race
in which each lap is just another life
and all that matters is the rate of flow