It’s past time, people. Rise up.
How foetid does the stink of corruption have to be?
Rise up. How much ice has to melt?
How many fires burn? How many forests?
How many teenagers must be shot? Rise up!
How many journalists must be jailed for you?
When will the indignities be enough?
When will it stop being someone else’s problem?
What excruciating circumstances
would finally be sufficient to shock you
out of complacency and abject apathy?
Rise up! Rise up and take to the streets.
Rise up and swarm into the places of power
where these puppets kowtow to their masters.
Rise up and shake yourself free.
Rise up! There is no easy solution.
Rise up! Another world is not only possible,
it is crying out for you, it needs you,
it is nothing without you. Rise up.
Shuck off despair and breathe in determination.
Rise up. It’s past time. It’s almost too late.
It’s almost too late.