Learn to dream

Forget your man made borders, shifting lines drawn in the sand
Too often turned to trenches dug by jewelled flag waving hands
Too often used as prison walls to herd the Empire’s cattle
Segregating walls divide, and echo the sabres rattle

Burn the flags that fly above the corrupted halls of power
The emblems of the beast whose maw our sweat and blood devours
Shrouds to wrap the wasted youth who’ve died on foreign shores
Garments raised to spread the legs of official corporate w****s

Cast the sycophants and demagogues from thrones where they reside
Flush out the parasites from every host in which they hide
We’re beaten with the sceptre that we placed in hands ourselves
Flesh and blood commodities side tracked by glittering shelves

If we cannot learn to dream then further nightmares what we face,
if we cannot move beyond divisions of economics, faith and race
Change can only come throughout the work of many hands, 
a vision shared in common hearts, the love our soul demands

Reviews

[Amanda Granger]

Being a leftist, this speaks to me profoundly on several levels. I like the rhyme scheme and various allusions woven in throughout, and the message is wonderfully presented. If only people could break out of the capitalist nightmare we've been raised to view as reality and actually dare to dream--what a better place the world would be if we'd all work together for a common good. Well done! Poetry like this is important, especially since it inspires people to think about circumstances they may otherwise be desensitized to or indifferent of. The flow of this poem is so nice, and the last stanza and this line really stick out to me: "We’re beaten with the sceptre that we placed in hands ourselves"--I take that back, the whole thing is really exceptional. :)

[anartao]

Its a breath of fresh air through an otherwise somewhat jaded soul to hear those words from another ! I couldnt be happier that my words have been experienced in the exact way i envisioned writing this piece. In a world of social media we are all so much more connected than ever before, but what does any of that mean if we cant truly communicate, or share, a common vision ? Its getting feed back like this that really fuels the fire to keep writing, that there are people out there who get it, and share that vision ! Thanks for the awesome review !