Cut open, tear. Bleed from magic inkwells
Stare. The window’s pane is a television screen;
what you see outside is not actually happening.

The president is trustworthy
The police are protecting you
The children are safe.
Remember to giggle a little
if anyone tries to tell you differently.

The information that confirms your own beliefs
is a veil thickened by the media scenes,
biasedly depicting the facts as conspiracy
blurring the line between truth and honesty,
magnifying the delusion you choose to fit your understanding.

But If you have found yourself living in a world
you no longer recognize, trust your eyes
because reality has become that alarming.

America, America, it is of thee I sing. Home of the brave, sold out
land of the free. Our country is being stolen by the
freedom of corporate capital, the freedom to violate the earth
for quick fortune, future generations forfeiting their inheritance,
permanently desecrated by the oil tycoons greed.

The freedom to exploit another human being
because he can’t read the fine print, or afford a lawyer
to interpret the endless legal jargon, or because he is
so desperate he skips meals to feed his children,
the freedom to take him for all he’s got because
he would sell his soul to fill their hungry bellies.

Our country is being sold by those who value
the dollar more than human life. To sit by is to choose
to do nothing. To look away is want to do nothing.
To avoid, to underplay, to deny is to choose to do nothing.
To write an internet rant, a poem, to cast a vote
is a little more than nothing, but to stand up, make a fist,
and say “No!” Now that’s something.

Power is only gained, taken, and kept through the threat
and direct use of force. An uncomfortable truth,
they don’t teach you directly in school, but if you read between the lines,
of the one-sided lies in the World History textbooks,
a common theme holds thread through to today,
just as it did at the dawn of civilization:
Power is assured through violence.

The powerful only fear violence, because in a world ruled by money,
they are the untouchables gods of industry, but everyone can bleed.
And it is only when they are personally confronted with death,
do they see that life has no price. It is only when their hands are holding
the ebbing spill of their entrails, they finally realize the frail impermanence
of monetary luxury. As we consume, so too are we consumed,
for there is no liberty for the cogs in the machine.

So when you see nationalism, bigotry, racial pride, police forces being
used to protect the investment interests of the wealthy, stand up! Make a fist!
Resistance requires mass.