Occupy Sonnets, 11-15 [2011]

torches

WE NEVER FORGET     (thin arms crossed in an "x")
though we recognize that every voice is equal
who's wondering anymore     (right and unjust
a binary vote is not that unlike consensus
(some townsfolk wielded pitchforks     some waved torches)
what is being discussed is very serious

these patriotic stilts probably did hurt him
(who could stand on flames)     (suffering is moral
one the individual is asked to address
there are many     atheists and agnostics
and costumes     this is democratic process
(the monster is howling beyond our dull lamplight)

consensus is reached in favor of     burning
and thousands of others approached the tight circle

❊     ❊     ❊     ❊

others

procedural verbiage makes for dialogue
and others exhale smoke     (protecting the youth
future silence cannot be a priority
(looking for hunger     I found a small kitchen)
it's becoming rapidly apparent     (loss 
I don't think we need     an overnight presence

awake over 48 hours     crying
into the laps of strangers wearing corduroy
I see so few people out here     objecting
face-to-face     and learning to work together
no matter the choking want     talk the smokescreen
and they come here after every spent paycheck

they are the 99%     (retractions
(no afternoon protesters     or activists)

❊     ❊     ❊     ❊     ❊

notches

into a civil war you'd better be     carved
the election reform proposed ignores causes
upon a bark bench)     the sword or the dollar
overlords wave like the media     smiling
choosing to call themselves whomever     system
stifling them     no matter what situation

we call for students and teachers to act alone
then you must be one of us)     corporations
crane     raising dozens of crudely conceived flags
it's freedom     (the hamstrung movement as a whole
isn't it about time that we     (sad cowards
count the notches in our belts     and gunstocks

C-H-A-N-G-E     is a correction
freedom has been largely taken from the dollar

❊     ❊     ❊     ❊     ❊

traces

but even though the idea of election
monitoring     income that vanished with time
the Occupy movement seems outside     (the past
simply put     consumers have had enough of
all possible worlds     legitimizing
the result is a quiet creep of new charges

it seems to us that you have taken     (long-term
over the remaining     99%
to play the game)     occupied your parks and homes
the ruling junta's     seizure of the process
regardless of how one stands     traces of snow
it should be neither our job nor our desire

as people)     committed to serious change
forcibly bundled into higher monthly fees

❊     ❊     ❊     ❊     ❊

charts

rather than listing demands     (outright horselaugh
we need to recognize that the crises we face
up in your sheltered     comfy little attics
(direct US military intervention)
might not let you babies keep your iPhones     (though
subordinating the developing world

this is garbage)     self-destructive spectacle
the failures of this imperial policy
by Woodstock-era nostalgia     putrid false
assumptions     failure is the light at the end
and this enemy of mine     (not popular
predatory corporate capitalism

an article of faith charts the invisible
or better yet     enlist for the real thing