30 April is National Poetry Month and this is the last poem

Righteous

We exchanged ideas
You yelled at how right you are
And you are right
And you are angry
And your anger is righteous
But I can't contain or justify your anger
I can't begin to join you in it or go there with you
because I too, am angry,
and my anger can not be contained to just one thing
one incident
one injustice.

You see there are too many reasons to be angry
And too many ways to see the dark

When we pretend that our dollars purchasing products from countries aren't supporting regimes that make people disappear or wish they had disappeared before they're electrocuted to death, intentionally....
When people protest against abortion and there are millions of children in this country left in foster care because no one cares...
When drug addicts fill our prisons when treatment, even repeated over and over and over again because with drug addiction it's sometimes necessary, is still cheaper than jail.
When they can send mentally ill or mentally deficient people to jail rather than giving them a place to live in that's safe for them and safer for the community around them.
When corporate dollars control the free market so oil companies can destroy the Gulf, local industries, lives, families, communities, not cleaning up their mess and record billion dollar profits all in the same year.
When all the organic produce you eat isn't going to protect you against the cancer that's going to come because you lived/drank water/breathed air near something that was completely toxic, somebody knew about, and did nothing because liability is hard to prove in a court when your witnesses are dead from the diseases you gave them.
When the cures that are given are going to kill you too because companies control what you take, how you're treated, what you get where and from whom, and if you don't follow along with the plan you become uninsurable.

When people are fired, bullied, disregarded, disrespected, minimized, ostracized, marginalized, ridiculed, tormented, beaten, assaulted, maimed, murdered for loving who they love or being true to who they are.

When soldiers who have given their lives in service return the a country that doesn't return the favor and their needs can't be filled by their families, friends, and communities who can't begin to heal their wounds
caused by their service to their country and they end up on the streets.

When women are being repeatedly beaten, mutilated, violated,disfigured, dismembered, raped, burned alive, starved, stoned, in the Congo, Darfur, Pakistan, India, Egypt, Afghanistan, and here in America.

When children are given up on, shamed, ignored, taken for granted, unprotected, taken, violated, sold, abused, neglected, abandoned, caned, whipped, tortured, discarded, charged, convicted, sentanced, left to die and it goes on everywhere.

I'm not just angry.
I'm fucking angry.
I'm in a rage.
Most days, it's barely contained.
When someone pushes my buttons I want to sway into the dark,
scream loudly, beating giant drums that hurt ears so much that people can't ignore the vibrations in the form of words
run with scissors cuting out the hypocrisies from people's hearts,
tie them all together with a big fat chain of reality and peel back the advertising cloud layer that keeps us occupied,
whether it's coming from a television or a well intentioned yet capitally driven hippie magazine,
for a really big dose of WAKE THE FUCK UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I forget for a moment what I'm here for....
I forget that I have a voice...
And if my voice is constantly screaming I will grow hoarse and
the ears of those I'm hoping hear me will deafen at the volume
A rigid mind isn't easily changed
It takes a chisel
and ideas
a constant stream of them
spoken softly, righteously, intentionally, methodically, in several languages,
keep going back to the door even when they beat you,
keep holding the sign even when they spit on you,
keep holding each others hands as they turn the hoses on,
because the only way we can do this is together
and the only way we can do this is, is to keep the peace contained in our hearts, words, eyes
so we don't forget where we are
and where we come from
and who we're talking to
and who we're fighting for
because the one thing we always seem to forget
is that we are in this together
whether it seems like we are or not
somewhere there is a person
hearing words for the first time that tell them they're an amazing human being
capable of changing their world
somewhere there is someone standing up for someone else's life
somewhere this somewhere is here
this somewhere is right now
this somewhere is in our hearts
this somewhere is in our minds
we are this somewhere
and lest we forget
we are all we have
and all we ever need
and we can change the world.