Penman Protest

By Pieter de Beer
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emotion on a digital line.
each loss recorded, each gain captured
these instant distance nullifiers creating holes
in the reality beside me,
vacant spaces filled with thoughts
of different places, of escape…
my mind sees the trend.
without you, the world ended today.
no numbers to record the depths
to which the mountains of my conscience have fallen.
to burn and rise with wings spread wide
golden and bright with hope
and to be unheard,
with attention drifting past the fisherman’s net

WHERE HAVE ALL OUR DREAMS GONE?

LIKE FORESTS PETRIFIED,
THEIR PINE CONES CALCIFIED

THE DREAMS HAVE CRYSTALLIZED
AND WE’RE NOW INSIDE

A NIGHTMARE OF LIES AS WIDE
AS THE PLANET THAT’S DYING

I JUST WANT TO WAKE UP,
EVEN IF I DON’T GET MY DREAM

I JUST WANT TO RIP THIS NIGHTMARE APART AT THE SEAMS

BUT IT’S NOT MY NIGHTMARE ALONE,
WE’RE ALL IN IT TOGETHER
I CAN’T SEVER THE TETHERS
SLAVING THOSE INDEBTED FOREVER
I JUST WANT TO WAKE UP,
EVEN IF NOBODY GETS THEIR DREAMS
I JUST WANT TO BREAK THIS SYSTEM
THAT PAYS YOU TO
NOT HEAR THE SCREAMS

would you hold my hand
help me make a stand
to claim this land
so broken and
unmanned
like sand
too long dry
waiting for us to cry
to use the tears from our eyes
to drench the soil without the skies
make it fertile and to stave off goodbyes

crippled by a system
for seeking out wisdom
chained to a society
chanting about liberty

wisdom needs the knowledge
of unified strength and courage
yet the squabbles will persist
and the unity is lost in mist

the wise again are blinded
the forgotten feuds reminded
for profit there must be
when life is a luxury

time is change, and all must join
the unified choice, or the flip of a coin