When the Statues Came Tumbling Down
A poetic declaration of interdependence and universal sovereignty from the slave masters of history
Poetry: A declaration of interdependence and universal sovereignty from the slave masters of history
“Every day is history,”
Mother Earth said to me
through broken tears and many miles.
“Every Moment a Revelation.”
Triggered by heroes in history books
who have been revealed,
covered with warts and blemishes,
offensive to all who perceive them clearly
But do you dare look on?
You must …
LOOK!
Columbus, at last,
brought to heel,
to feel the subjugation
of 1492
You wrote to the king and queen in Spain
Of the natives of the Indies,
their honesty, generosity and simplicity
the “best people in the world
and above all the gentlest”
No consciousness of the Fall
still in the Garden until
your boats arrived and
hacked their limbs
clear-cutting cultures for coins
civilization let loose on the land
Did you understand?
And for it all, what did you get?
A holiday in October
engraved in eternal bronze
on pedestals near capitals
Proclaiming the triumph of your Will
and your worldview
Until …
Where were you in 2020
when the statues came tumbling down?
Were you underground,
planning the next insurrection
Were you seeking protection
from the karmic apocalypse?
As its winds of change rose
from the throats of the masses
the black Floyd in all of us
eternally harassed
pinned to the ground
“I can’t breathe”
Did you see the chains
or what remained of a
shattered worldview,
face down, bronze on Earth?
“Mama, mama…”
A plea for passage from
a life of cruel slave ships
And explorer’s servants
subjugated by gold and greed
Did you see this?
Or …
Did you insist differently,
that history was forever
written by the winners
and the losers were all lazy?
Was this the hazy mist
that twisted your perceptions
as you waited for a resurrection
in a far off land
where all the sinners
would have to stand
in line for Judgment
to make amends?
These questions, from eyes so teary
Your answers, for what seems eternity
a litany of mistreating minorities
a history of broken treaties
Do you understand me?
Or will it take more?
More rallies, more rage
more breaking of the chains
of the powers that put us in cages?
Must we scream, must we burn,
must we stomp our way into your hearts?
Must we fight, must we bleed,
Must we toss apples of discord
For your wars in your souls to start?
Or can we heal, can we sing
can we grieve this land we’ve lost?
Can we feel, can we ring
the bells of freedom, no apples tossed?
Beliefs are magnets from the future
so what do you believe about the present
what kind of America, what kind of world
what kind of humanity do you see?
Columbus saw innocence:
humans with the “sweetest talk
in the world … always laughing”
fit for exploitation, “fine servants,
we could make them do
whatever we want.”
And so he’s been, knocked down
and stomped on, this god of America
this king of Progress,
this disease of capitalism,
a virus spread across the land,
turning trees into board feet
so bored bastards in boardrooms
could profit, each quarter a new high
each peak a new low
How far do you want this to go?
History is choices made
every day, born of beliefs
about our surroundings
about our selves.
I believe I am beautiful,
truthful and good
and so are you.
And so is our world,
the Nature that surrounds us,
that flitters by us in birdsong
that greets us in rising suns
and wishes us well
in departing moons
draped in cloudscapes.
And so is our humanity
It’s everywhere to see,
in our paintings, our novels
our laughter, our generosity
our walking the elderly
across an icy street
but I also know that within me
there is ugly, deceitful and bad
and so it is within you
It’s everywhere to see,
in our headlines, our screens
our history books, our shopping malls
our ravaged waterways
Can we reclaim, can we integrate
can we own up to what we have been
and who we are to become?
Or does history repeat, an endless drum?
The choice is ours, its yours, its mine
Its who we chose to be
Over these next days, months, years
And, and if you ask me?
Well, I’m done:
done exploiting
done playing victim
done listening
to those who claim power
over our fellows
over our Mother Earth
So I declare, for all to see:
I’m no longer a subject
because inside of me
is the same thing that is inside you
and you and he and she
And that is, a divine Being
ready, ready to declare sovereignty
ready to be in Service
for a Universal Humanity
Ready to be Free.
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