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Signs of Protest
(civilly offered)
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I do not understand
The people who have died
From shooting,
From hunger
Or lack of safe water,
From COVID
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You know what I mean,
I don’t understand
The situation
That allows for these
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Too many guns,
Not enough
Food and water,
Too much disease
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The solution seems mathematic
Fewer guns,
More food and water,
Less disease
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I don’t care about the politics
We’ve made death too easy
And where politics might be concerned,
We’ve rendered people into blots:
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We take off our glasses
And look at the blots from a distance
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We have the right
To kill
Except we don’t have it
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Made-up spies, perhaps
Soldiers who follow orders,
Though there’s too much a burden
For them,
The soldiers and the orders
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Stay strong
Broker peace
Don’t outlaw emotions
But outlaw hate
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Maybe slowly we’re getting there
I don’t know
Maybe you do
I hope so
Because I have to count on you
And you and you
Not as blots
But with the most urgent
Kind of clarity
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C L Couch
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International Women’s Day in Barcelona, Spain (2009). The motto, written in Catalan, says: “Total crisis in the patriarchal system”.
By Mutari – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6151838
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finding an image to represent protest was harder than I thought it would be; I chose this photograph because I agree that the patriarchal system is in crisis: in fact, IS a crisis
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