poem of the day 04.19.16

nuit debout

            --I sure as hell wouldn’t want to live

              in a society where the only people allowed guns

              are the police and the military (william s. burroughs)

cops in riot gear

with helmet shields

and bullet proof vests

hurl tear gas at kids with headscarves

wrapped around their mouths

charge them like a battering ram of metallic flesh

oh, the streets of paris

are full of that ol’ joie de vivre

as i sit in an amsterdam hotel

drinking bad wine and listening to the rain

or is this new york that i’m watching?

londoners calling for the prime minister’s head?

it’s hard to tell these days

another city, another pack of boys in blue

dragging some citizen across the street

at the beck and call of some silly law

or politician with his hands in an offshore tax haven

you say you want a revolution?

right now i’m thinking about that quote

william s. burroughs had

only i can’t get it right

or maybe i’m not the pacifist i thought i was

as i watch bloody kids with no future but debt

get dragged across haussmann boulevards

and thrown into police vans

reflecting all of the beauty of the city of light

all i can think

is get these kids something stronger

than a rock to throw

something more than just the will

to stand up against this bullshit and tyranny

let the sky rain bullet proof vests and riot gear for the masses

throw all of the batons

in the middle of the place de la republique

the tear gas in trafalgar

the guns in the middle of times square for the cowboy americans

then let us all stand back

and on the count of three

let’s see who can get to them first

and then we’ll see what’s up.