Cherie Shares
It is not guns
It is not billy clubs Nor is it shadow governments. The danger doesn’t come from despots Or mad dictators.
It is not straps or shackles
Forget the chains Not men in black masks There are no bars that cage us No one is holding us down. We can live unfettered and free in the sun, our dreams and us. That does not mean there are not wars Or villains Or deaths. But they come in on slippered feet Bringing tea And sighing sympathetically Suggesting we rest Nodding sweetly as we place our heads onto their laps Taking our hands off the keys And our vision off the horizon And turning instead To CNN.
It isn’t the evil that will do us in as we seek to make the world our garden.
It is the boredom And the despair The empty meeting rooms The disappointing ticket sales The polite requests for literature That will line the bottom of book bags Without so much as a glance. The fight isn’t against big business or their lobbyists The fight is to stay undaunted As we cancel bus reservations And make sandwiches out of Costco rolls It is the event insurance That will take us down It will be the puzzled questions from our neighbors And the sad size of our rallies That will do us in When we sit there with our feet aching after an all-day event To which only five people came Realizing we have another two hours of clean-up And three dozen extra bottles of water to get rid of And your helpers have already gone home. That’s the stuff that will get us That will stab us And gut us And stop us.
Or can we decide
That’s our battle ground. That’s where we draw the line The sacred circle around our dreams And cling to them as our nails tear And our fingers bleed. That’s where we say no Refuse to bend The time for heroic speeches is not in front of crowds It is to yourself as you pay the bills and make the calls As you notch your rejections on your bedpost And lift your head and clear your throat And try again And then again As you wage your war Not with weapons But with Post-its And not against enemies But with your doubts.
Photo credit: Feathered Hat Studios on Pixabay
2 Comments
Kersti
5/2/2017 06:07:17 pm
love love love this.
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Cherie
5/4/2017 11:38:41 am
Thanks Kersti - I'm glad you found it useful. Just like the little girl from the "Shake n Bake" commercial, I'm happiest when "I helped!"
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