Weekly Poem #5

This poem is published this week in support of Idle No More.
Idle No More is a growing grass roots resistance to current Canadian Government initiatives to further marginalize First Nations communities, to invalidate and terminate existing procedures and treaty obligations. It is not a new action but a repetition of longstanding institutionalized racism.

no-oh Canada

darkness gathers along
national lineage
spans decades, places
practices of oppression assemble

crowds salute
a bundle of rods bound tight
with muscular pride
dangerous razor edge
slightly covered

shout for gods and country
make punishment right
make resistors enemy
keep the wealthy safe

in the arc of time
its told often enough how
messages cleverly formed
massaged to hide lies
will carry the day, will be
believed: thicken the clouds
distort words, discard science

silence all who might be other
who might not agree
shout names, slogans
shout them often
shout them loud
refuse responsibility

power is a deluding nectar

darkness comes in
boot steps, a steady march
lubricated wheels roll on
roll on and over, crush

corpulent faces leer
their successes, applaud
brutal cleverness: it always wins
the fat get fatter even
on slimming diets. the rest
can be erased, the losses
will last generations

stories will tell how
so few said no
how violence was expected
accepted without question
grew without restraint

a different holocaust being built
with the same tactics
the same ideas of purity and order
to serve the same ends 

let there be parades and ceremonies
let there be war and triumph
let there be waves of sentiment
and severity. let there be wealth
and power. let there be pride

and let us forget that their history
may be ours.




All poems copyright of the author Daniel G Scott