words to share out loud

these are the days the narrows close and freedom burns the eyes
we wake up every morning to the scenes of genocide
unfolding on these phones we use to keep up and survive, 
made with cobalt from the Congo picked by children in the mines,
gadgets we can buy with hard-earned wages keeping us alive 
while bankrolling the death squads wiping out whole family lines, 
these same screens we source our data from for truth amidst the lies
swear to God, these are the days no prophet could have prophesied

these are the days the double-speak becomes official language
while the immigrants of yesterday fall in among the fascists

and our schools, homes, and hospitals are left again to languish

here at home, while off in Gaza they get bombed with U.S. taxes

and they sweep the tent encampments out for cameras and conventions

while they sell the public housing off for luxury developments

and words they use like “common sense”, “think for yourself”, and “freedom”
mean don’t ever question premises you’ve already agreed on

and in this mess, somehow we must turn terror into hope,

and that, i guess, is my job if i call myself a poet

but they've got a place for wordsmiths like me in their market world

unless I move the mob so well the order gets disturbed

and here we are, just free enough to gather in this place

and say these kinds of things out loud together, face to face,

but if we go too far too fast with talk of revolution

we may find out too soon what is their new final solution

so what does freedom look like when our very thoughts are guarded?

and what does liberation take with shackles on our hearts?

the rivers of our grieving must come bursting through the dams

the tears of generations who've been severed from their lands

the terrible epiphany that we have not been human

and have not been allowed to be, and now what will we do?

our children's children pray for us to shake the chains away

the earth may still forgive us if we weep and turn today

the consciousness of millions still revolves around their lives

the struggle for security and shelter, to provide

a home that is a haven for their children for all time

and if we focus everything on that, we may not die

when chaos comes, our clarity will be our only light

good food and water our most useful weapons in the fight

to see the frightened stranger, to look them in the eye, 

and call each other kin, and start rebuilding, dignified.