If Revolution is an Old Idea, We Live in Aged Times

by Nadya Agrawal – UCLA

The Tamil Tigers knew where to be

Where the heart should lie

A Bengali roar from a gunshot

For freedom and beyond

For familial bond

And jungle homes

A rifle on the back is nothing for a country

Destruction is next to Godliness, and Shiva knows

That out of the rubble it’s reborn

Whole and new and soft skinned

And let Allah grant

That bullet in the blue sky to land somewhere good

Somewhere warm and red

Behind the eyes of those who dare to oppose the young warriors

Permanent and life-stealing

Such a force.

And it will ring like an echo

Through this time to the next

Clashing in the hearts

Raucous in the thoughts

And unforgettable by history it will come

Righteous and strong and loud and

Purely seductive

It’ll be like a voice, quiet at first

And uttered like a curse

Underbreath

But that voice starts to scream

In the attic of the head till the buzzing

Is replaced

And revolution is born, bled

Through the eyes in your head

And unshakable, unshed

Revolution was born with that voice in your head

It’s born anew, from the ashes

And the dust,

Warm mud underfoot

From whence we came

So shall we return, they say –

Dirt and blood,

War mud, revolution rain

Pouring down in country after country

Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, Tunisia

Yemen, Kuwait, Morocco, Algeria

Name after name, riot after riot

Ash to ash and dust to dust

Righteous and regular

This revolution is.

Oh, brave new world.

Image from www.genderconcerns.org.