[Newspoetry] More From LA

[Mike Lehman]

More from LA. This was posted as a rejoinder to some pig dissing the "My
America" poem.
                    by spina 6:40pm Wed Aug 16 '00 

                     i read 1984. 
                     i read my allen ginsberg. 
                     my emma goldman, my proudhon, my bakunin. 

                     give up? 
                     we hold our beliefs due to conscience, 
                     not because we will win or lose. 

                     you can't give up when you refuse to play the game. 

                     i'm no child of the sixties. i'm no hippie. i'm no
internet                      armchair cynic waiting for the
                     revolution to be simulcast. 

                     i'm a child of the eighties. 
                     gold cards, donald trump, savings and loan, iran
contra,                      reagan, cold war, racist cops,
                     grenada-beruit-panama, tiennamen square, corporate
greed,                      militarism, star wars
                     defense. 

                     i survived the nineties, gulf war, downsizing,
scandal                      wracked, racist cops (always),
                     apathy, "relative prosperity," waco, oklahoma city,
clinton,
                     ATF-FBI-INS-CIA-COINTELPRO, structural adjustment,
corporate                      government,
                     corporate prisons, nike, hate-crime, sell-outs,
project                      echelon surveillance, bullets in
                     the back, clubs on the head, pepper spray in the
face, state                      sanctioned murder:
                     diallo-sankofa-mumia. raids on puppets, raids on
innocent                      families, police state.
                     republicrat, U$A, Amerikkka. 

                     fascism by any other name. 

                     give up? 

                     WAKE UP!