.
"the only license you need to speak is a readiness to listen"
-Daniel FerriIs it ironic...?
that Gil Scot Heron said
the revolution will not be televised
because by all accounts, it has been
-uploaded
downloaded
YouTubed
facebooked
and it was exactly
that kind of social media
actually helped recent revolutions
in what we're currently calling
the Arab spring
ironic
like stickers
sporting environmental slogans
stuck on the back of cars
ahh.. you might as well carry a gun
with
'give peace a chance'written on the barrel
it is ironic
like it's ironic
that many consider the bicycle
more dangerous
to people on roads
than cars are
is it ironic...
how this country full of rich people
whose economy
is inextricably linked
to exploiting natural resources
whose geography
consists mainly
of sun scorched desert
have deemed solar power
too expensive to develop
is it ironical
that this country's people
not only do the most carbon polluting per capita
in the world
but also stand to suffer the worst of its effects
are then
also the least willing to do
--anything--
about
it
-is-
ironic
that
this land
-was-
stolen from a sixty-something thousand year old culture
where invaders claiming no one owned it prior
try to justify keeping others out of it
now
because they want to preserve their way of life
is it ironic that this country's welfare system
won’t help you if you’re homeless
unless you can give them a mailing address
for the cheque to be sent to
and check the irony
in media storms whipped up
around a fourteen year old kid
arrested in Indonesia
for drugs
when childen from them places
just turning up
on our doorstep
uninvited
is considered a crime
irony
like the loneliness
you find
truest only in cities
when you're surrounded by millions
irony like showing people-
touching bodies
having sex on screens
labeled dirty and obscene
but movies showing people-
shooting inflicting violence
on other people's bodies
are considered acceptable, clean
in the quick crucifixed
censorship of violence bible bashing us
with pro-life death penalties
ignorant guardians of information
bigoted diatribe editorial scrawl
speaking out-rage in writing
over what someone else said
while in the meantime
the keep left signs point nowhere
so-called social outcasts moulding themselves
idealist
trying to deny that they're just a different stripe
of ideologue,
they keep hiding behind the Bush's
accusing Obama of being worse than his predecessor
principally because he's had to compromise
I guess the left handed-heavy
have not yet been able to
real-eyes
that if you really want
the type of benevolent dictator
wielding the kind of autocratic sweep
you've described that he should keep
you'll have to do more than elect one
the only conclusion you seem able to reach
is
oh, well, umm, y'know he should just make another speech
forgetting what he said
when he was announced president-elect:
"I promise to always listen to you
especially at times when we disagree the most"no idle boast
taken to ask
while I ask
is there irony made out of
ideas we claim to embrace
and those we don't
in whom we point our fingers at
and at whom we won't
listening selectively to leaders
who tell us to disregard the science
because it's inconclusive
not understanding that the power science has
over religious dogma
is that it never purports
to have a conclusive answer
I don't have any answers either
just thoughts and ideas
(thank god)
and I can't help but thinking
that revolution also means 'spin'
a political revolution need plenty of spin
to cover for the fact
that they have rarely
if-ever
have changed a fucking thing
irony defines more revolutions
than revolution have defined change
the revolution has been televised
and even if you haven't stayed home brother
you're still couching your concern
global
in a two-sided ideologue shit fight
so instead
of telling me
to choose a side
as if people taking sides
has ever helped anything
in human history
except their own sense of pride
think you need to take a closer look
I see no sides worth taking
on a planet spinning it's own revolutions
day for night
because this turning world truly has no sides.
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This poem was retooled from a more left-leaning soap boxy affair I'd punched out back in April, revamped for a gig last week paying tribute to the late, great Gil Scot Heron.
It was a great line up of local poets, and most of the work was politically inclined so instinctively, rather than getting high on my own supply, I went for the chance to be a dissenter amongst dissenters to then night, I think it was successful for the most part, if nothing else this statement (or anti-statement) added another texture to the evening.
-Peace
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