“Rattle Them Bars Boy”

A poem to myself

Rattle them bars, boy

…and pretend like someone’s listening

you can keep on complaining all you want

but with these people…they  don’t care

Whoever told you that words were powerful

…they were lying

Not with these folks

ACTIONS are what’s powerful

Words may work with those that are on your same level

but these folks are in the big leagues

The rich don’t speak the same language as the rest of us

And the sure don’t play by the same rules

Ten million American’s can hit the streets

in protest against an unjust war

But the dogs callin’ the shots…

They don’t hear us

They don’t see us

and they damn well don’t care about us

So rattle them bars all you want

but you’re wasting your time

You’ve got to speak their language

They’ve got to feel the pain you do

and words ain’t gonna’ bring that about

But you slap them with a stick

or separate them from their bank account

… and I guarantee they’ll be listening then

It’ll be in their interests…

’cause nobody likes pain

I keep hearing these prophets of peace

preaching about how change is coming

…but violence is not an option

The Founding Fathers weren’t listening to that bullshit

’cause they knew better

The rich man…he ain’t given up nothing

…unless he has to

Now, I’m a reasonable man, so reason with me

If you knew that the heartless thugs running this country

would still be there twenty years from now

would you still be protesting “peacefully” for change?

or would you take up arms?

Yeah, I know it’d be suicide

But how much would you put up with

before you said—so god damned what?

Marty Zupan is a a foundry worker from Seattle. He can be reached at martinlzupan@yahoo.com. Read other articles by Marty.