No Talk of Revolution

there is no talk of revolution,

there is disgust but no despair,

no one to give up their opulence,

standing for truth or even principle,

we reference crimes over

cocktails and dinner, declaring

our disdain of violence of all kinds,

but conspicuously drink beer

at football games, not caring

about the players futures...

it is nothing more than entertainment;

there is no talk of revolution,

no challenging of the quo or

of the rights of men,

including everyone, including

those we do not understand;

no concerns for power or control,

poorly displayed or without integrity,

morals and values encouraged;

There is no talk of revolution,

from a self-centered, egotistical soul,

who never spent time in a war

or productive time in a Church

or who might be the least little bit

amazed by all the global poverty;

there is no talk of revolution,

in the lyrics of songs today

or in the poetry read in coffee shops

on college campuses...

"but they do not do that no more,"

you say...

there is no talk of revolution,

in the clothes or hair styles of the day

as long hair, once condemned, now

seems to be worn by everybody,

except bankers and investment tycoons,

with everyone parting in the middle

while straddling the fence;

there is no talk of revolution,

that was the trademark of my decade years ago,

when we, as outsiders and rebels

stood our ground in protest...

yes protest...

even in the rain and we did not abandone

our thoughts our our anger

or our desire for the world to be fair

and we paid the price of

alienation,

contempt,

ridicule and jail for our actions,

and some of us have survived,

risen, and received awards and praise

for our tenacities;

there is no talk of revolution,

no Black Panthers,

no Weathermen,

no SDS,

no groups of any kind, except for

the Arab Spring,

Hong Kong

and perhaps Terrorism,

trying to replace Christianity which

is really no contest at all;

but, what we do have is

impotent collegial discourse and reflection,

as if we were all Peter Parker or something;

yet, there was Occupy Wall Street

that was not even close to being a Kent State;

there is no talk of revolution,

unless you consider drugs and alcohol

and while that may be rebellious for some,

it does nothing but destroy self

and fixes nothing...  but, it does

put us in a stupor from which

others can better defend;  and,

our guilty rich toss coins at the poor

as if making wishes at Trevi Fountain,

they still will never understand

how the oppressed live eating steak dinners

returning to servant riddled mansions

and over late night cognac they have

no idea how fortunate they are

that there is no talk of revolution anymore.

2Oct14