for the people of Egypt

[Rootsie]

For the people of Egypt
Feb.11, 2011

to be all at once
for once and for all
unafraid

and with such clarity
the only place
to be-
Tahrir--
Liberation
squared,
a million sudden sisters
and brothers
in the thick of it
water cannon teargas
bat bullet rock
and you don’t stop

taking up the thin gold thread
woven through generations
“we must hang together
or surely
we shall all hang separately”
kin to beloved sages
and nameless sufferers
alike with desires so simple
so elemental the most human
of desires

unalienable despite facts
of history which seem to indicate
their expendability
and though the regimes of despots are fragile
their demise inevitable
there seems no shortage of despots
hawk-faced hucksters who trade in fear

but “there is something in the soul
that cries out for freedom”
that abides through oceans of broken bodies
and dread silence of extinguished voices,
that sprouts unlikely from blasted landscapes
something that ever will insist
 and persist

this day they chant “Allahu Akbar!”
shoulder to shoulder
on another it was “Amandla!”
on others “Viva!”

Amman, Riyadh, Damascus, Tehran, Tora Bora, take note.
The fear you’ve manufactured is all that stands
between you and the deluge. Fear turns
on a dime. It’s just a matter of time.

[Rootsie]

http://sfbayview.com/2010/when-we-say-democracy-we-have-to-mean-what-we-say/

“We are all equal – rich and poor – and we need a society where the people enjoy their rights. But once you speak this way, it becomes a good reason for you to be pushed out of the country or to be kidnapped as I was.” – President Aristide

It was American soldiers who kidnapped President Aristide and an American plane that flew him out of Haiti in 2003. The United States cannot talk democracy with one side of its mouth and subvert it with the other. Never again!