Easy To Say

It is easy for me to say
I forgot the rules
and began going to protests
just to watch
I forgot the rules
that said not to follow along
and don’t get involved
It’s easy for me to stay home
and pretend it doesn’t matter
whether or not I go
as long as someone does
and they
the unshaken they
the implacable they
just let me be
It is easy for me to say
that Buddha would agree with me
that Jesus would agree
Allah would give me a high five
The old gods would nod
their shaggy heads
and if I chose atheism
I’d nod my own
Serenely disdaining violence
no matter if it comes or remains
abstract
It is easy for me to say
I can’t be bothered
Let the young care about it
I will be dead soon enough
I would rather die peacefully
I would rather die in my bed
Old and unconcerned
At peace with it
At peace with corruption and scandal
and endless war
and the fat senile bitter man at the top
of a host of smaller smug men and women
Let them do their worst
I will be dead by then
It is easy for me to say
that I do not care for them in fact
I loathe them like lice on a clean body
A clean body like the one I hope is mine
upon death
It is easy for me
to look upon them and say
enough talk
for I have been saying the easy things
for so long I do believe
that no one will listen
unless I shut up
unless I pick up
a gun or a stone or a sign
and let free my fire
with a shrug
with a defiant uncaring for consequences
and
without saying a word again
without saying a word

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
onward,
T