Take this Poem

 

First of all, believe me when I say that there is no improving on the model poem for Mary's prompt: Take This Poem by Elizabeth Willis.  It’s brilliant.  Go on and read it.  I’m trying to create something else with a similar rhythm of urgency and hope.

 

 Take this Poem
 
This poem is
a red and blue
pill you take
to reveal or disguise
the matrix.
Take it alone or
In company.
Conformity becomes
group experience
either way.
 
Do you hesitate?
Sit there
without deciding?
At least watch
people choose
a pen or ax
a hammer or cudgel
a plow or weapon.
Watch who walks
toward danger
and who is danger.
 
See who simplifies
Into love and hate
and who embraces
the complexity
of growing up
of trial and error
of standing up after
being flattened
by oppression.
See who listens.
 
And then, instead
of pills, take courage
to walk your fear
out of its
hundreds
of closets
and stand up
for voting
for dis-arming
for nourishing
the malnourished
earth and its
populations.
Stand up for freedom
And equality.
 
Go outside naked
free of mask
and prejudice
free of tears
free of need to
divide into binaries.
Go outside naked
this poem in hand
and share it
to develop a better
one for place and time.
 
One that will explode
systems that limit
human possibilities
systems that destroy
environmental futures
systems that create
us and them
and he and she
and rich and poor
and users and used.
 
Create instead
like nature
from seed
to fruit
like the gods
from nothing
to something
with growth
and change
built in
like a life force
like a wind
like a sun
like a cloud
like a bird
who wants
to do its part
in the survival
of the world.

For Mary's prompt TAKE THIS POEM on the Blog "What's Going On?"

My blog poems are rough drafts.

Please respect my copyright.

© 2023 Susan L. Chast