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Tuesday, August 07, 2012

We Have Come for Your Future


We have come
for your future,
and we will not be
deterred.

Your beliefs stand
like a moribund mansion
left untended,
overgrown with weeds,
with peeling paint,
grotesquely
oversized
for your neighborhood.

We have come
for your future,
and we will not
be distracted.

You stand on your porch,
shoulders wrapped
with a faded
and tattered flag,
standing on the
family Bible,
dusty from obsolescence,
exploiting these artifacts
as shields
to hide your prejudices
and antiquated justifications.

Your time has come
and gone.

We’ve been left out
of the inner rooms
of money and policy
long enough.

We are
cold, hungry and desperate,
and if you don’t
hand it over willingly,
we will take it.

Don’t fight us,
as we have time,
youth
and impatience
in our arsenal.

We come armed
will ideals
rooted in
the eternal value
of justice,
tips sharpened
by the sting
of unfairness
and the memory
of righteous indignation.

You tried to suffocate us
with powerlessness,
but our will to survive
was greater than your will
to destroy.

Yes,
we have come
for your future,
and we won’t take
No
for an answer.

[Posted for #OpenLinkNight at www.dversepoets.com - come along a poem a spell!)

26 comments:

  1. I wish someone would do exactly that. There is so much anger and ever growing hatred now in so many parts of the world. I hope they don't take no for an answer.
    Powerful imagery, great poem.

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    1. Thanks! I think there are many people not taking No for an answer, and that may be part of the problem.

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  2. dude...loving your braveheart moment here...throw the sword i am ready to charge...just let me get this kilt over my hips...smiles...you def capture the underlying feelings of many these days...i wonder if it will come to something like this...

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    1. Thanks, and if it does come to this, I'll wear a kilt!

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  3. heck...tight and brave write.. fav lines..

    You tried to suffocate us
    with powerlessness,
    but our will to survive
    was greater than your will
    to destroy..

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    1. Thanks! America is full of such squabbles, just watch our TV.

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  4. Powerful... I second Claudia's favorite part.

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    1. Thanks, I like that too and I don't remember writing it! Go figure.

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  5. It seems that so many are just ripe to make needed changes to everyone's future. Question is whether the change will in the end make the future better or worse...

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    1. Yes, and I notice so many want the change to come from "the other side" - whoever that is.

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  6. Standing on your porch in tattered flag and family bible, particularly enjoyed that stanza.

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    1. Thanks - that's my tribute to the American stereotype.

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  7. Hear, hear!

    Yes, I hope it doesn't come to this, but there are days when it feels like it will.

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    1. Yes, but I also take comfort knowing most of my countrymen are pretty damned lazy, so only real change will make it through.

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  8. Love the strength of this. We will take anything and everything, your time has come and gone - the one thing we wil not take is "no."

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    1. Thanks - part of me was channeling (stealing from?) the late great Abbie Hoffman. America strikes back!

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  9. My god (no pun!) If we don't take it NOW, we'll have no future! This so get's my blood boiling and I am so ready to march...but you're all the way over there...and my neighbors already think I'm crazy because I bang pots and pans every night...out front...by myself...heck...maybe I am crazy...like a fox! ;)

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    1. Natasha, you're my kinda crazy! Whatever team you're on, that's where I want to be! Thanks.

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  10. Love this...Perhaps I shall play Twisted Sister "we're Not Gonna Take It.. no, We Ain't Gonna Take It.. we're Not Gonna Take It Anymore" while I bang pots Like Natasha...Great job in raising a battle cry!

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    1. Thanks, yes and I love Dee Snider and TS too!

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  11. Anonymous2:15 AM

    Gotta say, this is really one of my favorites of yours, Mosk...a powerful punch here...memorable!

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  12. powerful, powerful... plus i love the thought of you and brian wearing kilts...

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    1. Thanks, my friend! I'm one of the few Mexican men who can pull off wearing a kilt.

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  13. This may show how weird my brain works but, while I was reading this I kept hearing the Sex Pistols in my head... Anarchy.
    This was very powerful Mosk.

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    1. Thanks, Beckeleh. Yes, I can hear The Sex Pistols, too. This poem was inspired by my pastor berating me for my support of gay marriage during the Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day. What I got most from his very un-pastor-like hectoring was his fear of the inevitability of change. In this vein perhaps, Public Enemy's "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back" is more appropriate. Thanks again for your kind comment.

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