Why do I cry when I
see sixteen year-olds
Fearless and wise beyond
their years, wielding swords
of science—slaying share-
holders’ senators and clean-coal
congressmen on Capitalist Hill?
Why do I cry when I
see sixteen year-olds
Fearless and wise beyond
their years, teaching lobotomized
Lilliputians climate justice
ain’t neurosurgery or rocket science?
Why do I cry when I
see sixteen year-olds
Fearless and wise beyond
their years, speaking truth
to People—99%—real Power
in D.C, L.A., New York,
Paris, San Francisco, London—
163 countries and counting?
Why do I cry when I
see sixteen year-olds
Fearless and wise beyond
their years, teaching old fools
in four year-long sandboxes
how infantile “supporting”
charlatans huffing and puffing
Hot air is?
Why do I cry when I
see sixteen year-olds
Fearless and wise beyond
their years, steer themselves clear
of Foundation Father seduction,
Speak Truth To Power careerists and
Drone Ranger-Slick Willy war criminals?
Maybe it’s because my Mom put me
on a picket line at nine; dropped me
off in Compton at eleven with a ream
of flyers and instructions to go
Door-to-door; meet her in a parking
lot when I finished?
Maybe it’s because sixteen year-olds are
realizing it takes hundreds, thousands—
millions of street heat degrees raising 99%
Consciousness
to
cool
our
planet
1
degree…?