100 Thousand Poets for Change, by Red Slider

A shield for those who have courage and take the risk,
a crowbar for those put in cages, persecuted and tortured,
a megaphone for those who have been silenced,
a memory that will not forget, no matter how stealthy the lies,
remote the dungeon or weak the muted voice
speaking truth to power from behind thick walls.

Who dares defile the sacrament of word?
Try to silence one of us and a hundred will speak out.
Try to lock one of us up and a thousand keys appear.
Murder one and 100 thousand poets will expose you
in permanent ink, at open mic, on the stage of the world
where we resurrect the souls of fallen comrades
and lay tyranny bare on the open page for all to see.

Make war, and we’ll be there. Refuse the sick or hungry care,
we’ll be there; exploit the poor or the vulnerable or the meek,
we’ll be there. Try to silence the truth, and you’ll never hear the end of it.
We will pry open your ears and force you to listen while your lies
confess of their own accord the crimes that swallow your tongue.
Unable to scream from within the silence you make of yourself,
no one will bother to listen to you begging for your own death.

..
“100 Thousand Poets for Change“, hosted by its founder Michael Rothenberg of BigBridge press,  is a global effort of poets speaking out for change in the world.  
100TPC now sponsors an annual Day of Change poetry event in more than 500 cities and 120 countries.  Join them to add the poetry and voices of your own community
to the effort.”