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GO THE DISTANCE
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POLITICAL NEXT LEVEL:
GO THE DISTANCE
THEY play like clouds.
That drift fast over the
Midday sun…
Whose shadows cast below…
They relish in their Teeter-tottering …
Rolling up and down hills
Twisting…
Tumbling….
Toppling….
Like two pups fighting…
Over meaningless toys.
THEY dance,
JOYOUSLY!
Delighting in anyone’s
B O D Y.
Holding each other,
Tracing the smooth curves…
Lifting sweat beads that stroll down…
A long neck bottle….
C A U G H T
On the tips of delicate fingers.
Spells cast over me by the,
Red of the neon lights,
Red of her nails,
Red of her lips,
R E D
OF MY RAGE !
THEY feel and grope each other…
Right in View,
Front and Center,
OF
P U B L I C
E Y E S!
Smacking with contentment,
Sitting on THEIR laurels,
Sated by a false hope,
A false dream,
THAT THIS IS THE END:
TOTAL ACCEPTANCE
&
SERENE UNDERSTANDING
Shrinking from THEIR
D U T Y
To tread on the paths,
Made by our ancestors,
Made by our leaders.
Anything less is a tantrum,
Thrown by any child
Who knows better.
S L A P P I N G
The generations before them,
Who supplicated….for THEIR privy.
Who rose to the occasion, when truth, like seed, flew fruitless in the wind.
Who took it to the next level, by staying steadfast in jails, under knives, by guns, and
R A P E!
Who took it to the limit, named the names, and lost their jobs.
Men and Women,
Who rioted at Stonewall!
Who have died from “complications due to” AIDS,
Who were abandoned, “dirty little secrets”,
Who NEVER saw…
THE LIGHT OF THIS TOMORROW!
Men and Women,
Who were bashed and beaten like…
The SHEPARDS of the field.
And the spilling of the…
MILK in the city office’s of San Francisco.
Who can’t recall the steaming, boiling heat of the,
MERCURY who lit the fires of a universal people.
Mothers and Fathers,
Brothers and Sisters,
Sons and Daughters,
LOVERS…who cried, NO MORE! NO MORE! NO MORE!
Knowing no movement,
WINS,
By the energy of one man.
At first, I hid to squelch the rumors.
I resigned my voice to silence
Just to have,
A HOME.
The silencing of this inner beat,
Of MY soul of the only drum I’ve heard,
KILLED.
So I crawled, not from a closet,
But a grave,
Tentatively, digging out
From the darkest corners of my fears,
Out of the broken soupy tears, of
MY MOTHERS HEART.
Why should I be joyful?
My effort, taken for granted,
Pilfered…
Ignored…
Pissed in the wind.
“Like meaningless prose…”
THE YOUNG.
THEY look at me like a
WALLFLOWER!
Overlooked, like I’m just
Another insignificant brick in
The YELLOW BRICK ROAD,
What THEY should know—
Someone spoke up for you!
Someone fed your spirit!
Someone fanned the flames and stoked the fires!
Someone bled for you!
Someone hung on a fence-post for you!
Someone was killed!
Someone was murdered!
I’m not talking about Christ! But Damn, when does it sink in?
Place your foot on the path,
NOT on the coals,
Stomping and Smothering.
Because we are a SMOTHERING people,
Extinguishing the only glint of a flame.
Glean more than another twelve ounces,
Or an instant gratified night of sex.
Thresh out the distractions,
Harvest an ambition and resolve.
Rise up now with fervor,
Before yesterday becomes…
JUST ANOTHER ARCHEOLOGICAL DIG.
Respect where I’ve walked,
Where and how I’ve lived.
Respect all of us who cared…
Who lived lives that can only be read about!
Don’t throw down the torch because it’s inconvenient,
Or you don’t have time!
Move Onward!
Upward!
Suck it up!
Set afire to the path,
A Destiny to be
BLAZED BY YOU.
Before you put your hand in my face,
U N D E R S T A N D T H I S----
I WON’T GO THERE!
IT’S YOURS NOW, GO THE DISTANCE.
Let me not live with the idea,
That Hope was a façade…
My gifts, my part in the process….
SQUANDERED!
Can you live with yourself?
Take a moment to watch the children in anguish.
Like too many of us before…
WITHOUT A PRAYER.
BE A VOICE!
GO THE DISTANCE!
Originally wrote: February 12, 2002
