Brunswick Book of Peace

Retort to Apathy


If you can't believe,
then you are not part of the story.
If you choose to collapse,
disbelieve, just
fall on your phallocentric sword,
then you are not part of the story.

Forget it.
We'll forget you, since
you are not part of the story -
the desperate, delicate, dangerous story.

The never ending story of
a country pushing into
the promise of its own democracy.
The story of a country finding again
its original, its indigenous voice -
the true timbre
of its revolution,
the grand reveille
for its untried glory.

A country fine tuning its anthem -
learning to honor all its dead,
realize all its forgotten,
bring in all of its brutalized,
and every one of their ancestors.

If you cannot believe - and hope,
and once again believe,
then I'm sorry,
you simply are not part of the story.

If today's clarion call
can't spring you from
your mass media slumber,
your lack of
investigative determination,
your blurred and sinking vision,
then you are not
part of the story,
or capable of the song.

And damn!
Just a healthy and a hearty
and a hail farewell to you.


Molly Willcox