By Lawrence Hall

Word Count:

Rating: PG for mild thematic elements

Summary: A Poem calling for reflection in a time of hot tempers.

I.

“No doubt they’ll sing in tune after the Revolution.”

-Kamarovsky, Doctor Zhivago (film)

Everyone seems to clench his fist these days

In solidarity with ephemera

While setting fire to green recycling bins

Hurling someone else’s bicycle through a window

Armed with their undergraduate degrees

The comrades liberate a coffee shop

Wifi-ing the revolution of the day

Empowerment by beating love to death

Loudsplaining authentic victimization

Posing for selfies with a stolen ‘phone

II.

Their inhumanity seemed a marvel of class-consciousness,

their barbarism a model of proletarian firmness…

–Doctor Zhivago, p. 349

Everyone seems to clutch his flag these days

In solidarity with a past that wasn’t

While setting fire to miss-spelled cardboard signs

Hurling someone else’s beer into a crowd

Armed with their lurid Confederate tats

The Something.Right liberate a dumpster

Bull-horning the counter-revolution

Empowerment by beating love to death

Bellowing their Reconquista of stench

Posing behind their cheap gas station shades

III.

“I used to admire your poetry…I shouldn’t admire it now. I should find it absurdly personal. Don’t you agree? Feelings, insights, affections… it’s suddenly trivial now. You don’t agree; you’re wrong. The personal life is dead…”

-Strelnikov to Yuri, Doctor Zhivago (film)

Some few embrace civilization these days

In solidarity with humanity

While lighting one small candle as a votive

Whispering an Ave into the Light

Armed with wonder through pen and flute and brush

Recusants choose the liberation given

In singing of the eternal verities

Self-empowerment happily denied

With love, with poetry, music, and art

Celebrating life on this summer day