If We Were to Cease

                                                                                  Guardians of Evil ~ Philip Brent Harris

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1816

I feel the fool tonight, though certain
     I hope we will crush in its birth
My words, sentiments echo
     The aristocracy of our moneyed corporations
Statesmen, leaders long dead
     Which dare already to challenge
Why should now be otherwise
     Our government to a trial of strength
Yet otherwise it has become
     And bid defiance to our laws
We’ve reached the crux: change or die

1953

Imagined I a poem or story
     Every gun made, every warship launched
Written only with names of weapons
     Every rocket fired signifies
Overwhelmed, a downpour, a deluge
     In the final sense, a theft
Drowning in guns and ammunition
     From those who hunger and are not fed
Till I melt beneath the weight of fear
     Those who are cold and are not clothed
So many makers in so many nations
     This world in arms is
Profits over people
     Not spending money alone
Death over life
     It is spending the sweat of its laborers
Hate over love
     The genius of its scientists
Year after year after year
     The hopes of its children

1941/1932/1864

Can I walk you in my thoughts
     The liberty of democracy is not safe
Around misshapen, greedy gnomes
     If people tolerate the growth of private power
Those who only understand the lust for gold
     To a point where it becomes stronger
Despite words of elder statesmen
     Than the democratic state itself
Statesmen and megalomaniacs at times
     That, in essence, is fascism
Villains of the piece recall, recount
     Ownership of government
Share thoughts with the brightest and best
     By any controlling individual
Unable to contravene reality for self alone
     Group or private power
Occulted and obscured by disinformation
     Fascism should more appropriately be called
Tragedy’s mask we have donned
     Corporatism, a merger
Eyes covered, no justice, only blind
     Of State and corporate power
Above us and around us
     Wealth is aggregated in a few hands
Too few and soft for honest labor
And the Republic is destroyed

1912/1967

Flowing with shed blood
     Behind the visible government
Of war-slaughtered children
     There is an invisible government
Screaming  agony of raped women
     Upon the throne
Hiding families, bloody, battered, hopeless
     That owes the people no loyalty
In the rubble of bombed, neglected cities
     Recognizes no responsibility
Homeless, starving  people
     This union between corrupt business
Who die before your walls
     And corrupt politics
Until none are left to die but you
     What lives we could transform
What a world we could create
     If we were to cease killing

Peace

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Peace is Purpose, Nonviolence is Strength, Diversity is Unity, Empathy is Empowerment

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