Colonization
We over here Control so much over there, At least we want to. We are trying to. We’ll stage coups too. We’ll kill too, We’ll murder too, We build bombs, We make guns, All for what? Who’s happy doing this? Is all we can do just watch? Empathy. What if it were you? What if it were you? What if it were you? What if it were your friends? What if it were your family? What if it were your kids? What if it were you? “They’re all the same!” We’re all the same! They are us and we are them. Yet we kill them. Not you but we. It’s normalized in our society. We are the peasants born into the kingdom, Swaddled in lies, taught to obey. We accept this is the way it is, Just as the us of the past accepted it. Not all but most. Here in the heart of the empire, Most just go on, and on, and on, While the wheels of the machine bomb the world to dust. Day after day, Day after day, Day after day, Kept in the cycle fueled by lies So much lies, So much lies, Everywhere, anywhere, Lie, after lie, after lie, Lies told unaware of their reality, Lies unknowingly regurgitated, unintentional. When all you’re fed is lies, When all you see is lies, When all you hear is lies, It’s no wonder why others go mad. What’s easier to wonder is “Why haven’t I?” Kept in the cycle fueled by hatred. So much hatred We hate me, we hate you. But you are me, and me is you. We hate ourselves, is that the truth? I say no, it can’t be. But then again, I feel so dumb and small and weak. I feel the weight of my insignificance, Daring it to not be true. I will not be a cog in the machine, Not me and no longer you. I want to change it, so I’ll lead with love, But love can’t bring back the dead, Perhaps it can help soak up all the tears that were shed. But what of the echo? The reverberation of screams,That lingers in the bones of the earth, And the extinguishing of our dreams? Do not worry, do not fret. The screams can be replayed endlessly On all of our screens. Change is not easy, As obvious as it seems. The beauty of hope is it dances, it gleams. Change is like capital, It compounds over time. The fight for what’s right, Has always been an uphill climb. I know the weight of the world feels too heavy to hold, But maybe, just maybe, When we are through, The weight of the world will feel a little lighter, And the echoes of screams will fade into truth. The liberated children, May finally be able to enjoy their childhood, Their youth. What are they liberated from? We must not forget, The people were liberated, From colonial wrath. These children will sing, They will dance, they will laugh. The future is truth, Subjugation the past. For their sake, and ours, May the future come fast. The future is unyielding, Along with it, time. Meanwhile the addiction to distraction, Keeps robbing us blind. Change starts with us, It starts with love, It starts with trust. But change will not happen, Until we refuse to get up from our seats on the front of the bus. Once we refuse, We stop being complicit, The age of imperialism, We can be the ones who finally dismiss it. We must carry the torch, From those who came before, For those who will come after, I cannot reiterate it enough, Change does not just start with me, Change starts with us. And when change finally is upon us, Change will bring a world that is conscious, That is honest. In this new world, Free from hyper imperialism, Perhaps they will see things through a new lens, Through a new prism. People can pause And people can wonder, How the world ever got to be this way, The joy and the blessing it is to see each new day. And why it took us So long to see.