We are just stewards
without the earth we are naked
to place value on land
is to affront the sacred
and make it something to be subjugated and used
to put a price on what’s priceless and sell it on the news
If radical means root and the true seed is greed.
then regulating profits just trims the tops off a weed.
For-profit prisons just a representation
of a slave bearing system in a more profit nation
where a paycheck means payment
of the interest on a debt
that insurmountable scope
creates an un-traversable step
up the pyramid hierarchy
that “creates all men equal”
who by virtue of deeds
can transcend their own people
who by writ of their power can command a whole nation
who by sheer ignorance
lend that power its station
in hopes that one day they’ll climb the step too
and that the promise of progress is really what’s true
it’s a lottery lie to keep you oppressed
so that rich remain rich and you remain stressed
So that those at the top remain on their stacks
and keeps us thankful for whips
striking our backs
and after the blood we shed
and scars we receive
we’ll open our eyes and collectively heave
throw off the shackles and cast down the masters
burn all the tanks and feed all the masses
our spirits will open to an old power that’s new
if roots make the radical
the seed grows in you.
Shon Dhi has spent 33 years on this planet where he lives in Tacoma Washington. His writing centers around our collective human submission to the ideas of usury, hierarchy, and exploitation. The antidote to that, which he calls “The Great Work,” is the establishment of human communities based on compassion, inter-connectivity, and autonomy. It is his hope that the more we deepen our connection with one another and our planet, the more we open ourselves to the creation of a society that seeks cooperation and not control.
