Change the World

Change the World - Singing

Singing

The song of rain has resounded

across my roof, through my walls and into

the citadel of my sleeping self. Thence awakened, I smile

the smile of one refreshed, renewed.

I sigh the joy of the saved.

They are not so fortunate who,

held in dank dark cells shelter from cold damp

which wracks the muscles and inflames the joints leaving

pain an unwanted guest in a body used to warmth

and the joys of shared voices.

I feel the percussion of the drops

across my head and let the song of life so

long unheard speed to my lips and rush forth with breath

unleashed by soul felt love and rejoicing.

I join my song to the rain.

She cannot sing her rebellion

anymore, for the prison guards goad her

back into line and onward the futile work supposed

to repatriate her to the Motherland.

Her families tears fall like rain.

My clothing wet through, sky tears

fall about me returning the earth to robust

and fecund ways once hidden from the eyes of children;

but now used to illustrate that which is

celebrated across the green lands.

Too many songs now lie unsung

across the desolate lands where rough hands

strangle the breath before the notes can float free into

air left rancid and sour by fear and privation.

Alcohol fueled guards, uncaring.

Too many old singers now long gone!

Their songs to bring the land to fruit, drift as dust

in the timeless spaces between thoughts of mineral wealth.

A land unsung, overgrown and burning from the

naivete of the uneducated and bigoted.

Too many claim they cannot sing,

as they lack the education teaching one to listen,

and then, to sing. All can sing in the silence of thoughts.

Only those who have truly listened to others

can give voice to the music of life.

You, reading this, release your voice!

From the Gulag of doubt and darkness that

represses your creativity and confidence. That stifles the

freedom of expression of the melodies of

experience that are the soul of you.

Sing as if the world is your shower

and no critc or authoritarian regime can stop

up the breath of your true being. Sing, send forth a song

that will echo across the ages and never

be forgotten by all, who; have voice.