THIS EXERTION OF FREE SPEECH WILL
NEVER BE BROADCAST IN THE U$A
It was happening long before the Patriot Act
fucked the ass of the First Amendment:
the great big cock of censorship
shoved down throats
vaulted open in silent screams.
It began with the forked tongues of documents
that devoured the nations of the first Americans,
became as permanent as the bars of black print
that still hold the truth hostage.
Truth held hostage:
No wars waged by shareholders with
greater profits in mind.
No farm workers with lungs rotting
from illegal pesticides.
No one laid off by corporations
seeking cheaper labor in distant ports.
No abused children fathered
by right-to-life judges in the Supreme Court.
No political prisoners, no energy shell games
no genocide of trannies and queers,
no top one percent
hoarding half our wealth
though all they produce is fear.
No one shot for living out of a shopping cart,
and no one hogtied by “pigs” and shot facedown to welcome the New Year.
Not Silenced, the call to 911 for help
from the poor neighborhood.
Not Silenced, those who test positive
when positive don’t mean good;
the artist who cannot tolerate the suffering;
those deformed by the crippled vision of this society.
Truth held hostage:
Isn’t that right
Mr. ATT-Walmart? Mr. Disney Channel?
Mr. Agent-pimp for Amazon-Chronicle Books?
Don’t you agree?
Mr. Wells Fargo?
Mr. Chevron Congressman? Mr. Chase?
Mr. John Paul Pope?
You who retain exclusive rights
to our freedom of speech.
Freedom of speech,
your propaganda thrust from billboards and shelves
that dictate what to consume and tolerate.
Freedom of speech,
the truncated parameters of
political and aesthetic debate.
Freedom of speech,
if you can afford the permit
to get your voice off the ground,
else it’s freedom of speech
without any sound.
Freedom of speech,
your slick and sexy manifestos of private property
at the check out line;
your endless television tribute to capitalism,
prime time;
your public schools of indoctrination,
the books and artists you won’t allow in the nation,
the countries our passports will never know;
Freedom of speech,
our right to express ourselves
as long as we’re incapable of thoughts of our own,
and as long as most folks won’t listen
to statements that hit home.
Pornographic,
your images of men and women
conjured for consumption.
Obscene,
the way you screw us in public for profit.
Indecent,
what dies in us that we may live this way,
suffocating on TV
instead of smashing the FCC—
All we got is this community mike
When what we need is a general strike!
This exertion of free speech may never be broadcast
by corporate media in the U$A,
BUT IT SURE AIN’T GONNA BE SILENCED…
©2012 Margot “Pimienta” Pepper