E pluribus unum: Power failure
Like America, riven asunder, I began life as a child of repression, Bound in lies like slaves bound in their shackles, Nothing I was told like the truth at all, Only the whitewash that polished power’s claws, Ever only partially retracted, Ready to prey on any deviancy And feed it to us as proof we were weak And could not protect ourselves, only obey. When we saw obedience made matters worse— Nothing ever changed unless for the masters, Richer and richer amidst starvation— We turned our backs on the hypocrisy And looked to build a world of different colors Where we might oppose the power of fear By exposing fear of power as poison To keep us weak and exhausted—too ill To take our chances to throw off our chains,Too sick to know we were not really sick, Slowly returning to the vision of health.I live now in my 70s, a man Who healed by accepting the changes No fantasies of men can wrest from death. Nature proves every design, every device, An artifice not of eternity but of time, And in time the enslaved will rise up—in men As in states, the riven asunder seek peace And the unity not of power’s lust But of belonging to nature and earth Where no heaven shines if hell also burns.
Like America, riven asunder, I began life as a child of repression, Bound in lies like slaves bound in their shackles, Nothing I was told like the truth at all, Only the whitewash that polished power’s claws, Ever only partially retracted, Ready to prey on any deviancy And feed it to us as proof we were weak And could not protect ourselves, only obey. When we saw obedience made matters worse— Nothing ever changed unless for the masters, Richer and richer amidst starvation— We turned our backs on the hypocrisy And looked to build a world of different colors Where we might oppose the power of fear By exposing fear of power as poison To keep us weak and exhausted—too ill To take our chances to throw off our chains,Too sick to know we were not really sick, Slowly returning to the vision of health.I live now in my 70s, a man Who healed by accepting the changes No fantasies of men can wrest from death. Nature proves every design, every device, An artifice not of eternity but of time, And in time the enslaved will rise up—in men As in states, the riven asunder seek peace And the unity not of power’s lust But of belonging to nature and earth Where no heaven shines if hell also burns.
