are wars, rumors of wars,
and allegedly the newest “Hitler”.
We are fed through the bullhorn of state-run media
told who the terrorist is
who the latest savage is
and why we should rally behind the next war.
When intervention by us is inflicted,
the lives taken and the hell experienced on other shores
is a language we do not hear
is a picture we do not see,
do not want to see
because we have to believe that our daddy is good…
that our country is good…..
because we are good.
Under the guise of liberation
and protecting the homeland
wrapped in a flag that supposedly
represents even the artist,
this monolithic entity
ceases to represent us
whenever it displaces the homes of ancestral spirits
and lays their world to waste.
The tyrant does not welcome the revelation of truth.
That is the artist’s domain.
And we are the artists,
the poets and the musicians.
We are the painters and the life givers.
We are not the government
because the government is not us.
The road to freedom is paved by the poet.
The path to liberty is painted by the artist.
The roads that lead to peace are softened
by the lyricists of song.
The light that leads us to morning
illuminates the truth and dispels the dark
loosening the grip of a pathology of separation,
which is why the tyrant fears the poet
When these cracks in the veneer widen again,
as they inevitably will,
how many of us will stand there
with paint brushes readied,
waiting for our leaders to supply us
with the next shipment of foreign blood
to paint over the lies and distortions
that seep through the veil
we’re imprisoned behind
and pretend it’s for our own good?
