Three wise men
Tonight the Capitol Rotunda’s shadow
is casting shapes that remind me of old photos
of that long dark line of Depression era dust storms
crossing the Great Plains with a dust to choke the light
If what’s inside the dome should now flicker out
leaving us to stumble through the dark
our lucidity adrift into some Tidal Basin of despond
I have an antidote in the figures of three men:
Howard Zinn
Daniel Ellsberg and Noam Chomsky
their silhouette back lit by my own inner light
appropriately kindled by them
I stand here looking over the vast expanse
of the emptied mall
straight up Capitol Hill
until my pupils take in the full
possible amplitude of something so small
as reason’s cunning in the vast dark
so that I am compelled to pull out their words
and read them to the night
Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it.
We need the courage to face the truth about what we are doing in the world and act responsibly to change it.”
Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever.