Poem: hadda change of heart

Poem: hadda change of heart

Tim Mills

– Poet’s Website –

Picture: Crowd Control – At a demonstration that started in Berkeley, an undercover law enforcement officer pulled out a gun and pointed it at the crowd.

hadda change of heart

used to believe eye for an eye
made the whole world blind
‘til the cheeks that were turned
became our own bruised buttocks
n so we learned
that working class hard knocks
are sore ass ties that bind
was misaligned
to think free speech
was the only vitamin needed
that truth repeated
wards off the system’s rickets
bein’ chafed n scuffed up
‘rassed n rough’d up
busted too many times
no matter
how peaceful our pickets
was defused to muse
that honest words
get that welcome all aboard
but
gotta state-sanctioned tramplin’
just for samplin’ vintage
where the grapes
of wrath are stored
i was floored
yet undeleted
so i hadda change of heart
hadda change of heart
won’t wait for manumission
that fills yer hands
with shit from the wishin’
well i hadda change of heart
broken down again
just when i thought i owned
a piece of the rock
i was bonded out for sale
upon the auction block
so think twice on feasibility
that fortune five hundred
lawmakers rein in
rascality for reality’s
one n the same stink
of mendacity perfumed
lawbreakers costumed
in a performance consumed
by ranklin’ romance
blue chip song n dance
so crooks n liars
leave us raw-throated
from shoutin’ ‘bout theatre
in a crowded fire
democracy’s funeral pyre
tended by arsonist mourners
n larcenist suborners
but then i hadda change of heart
hadda change of heart
won’t wait for manumission
that fills yer hands
with shit from the wishin’
well i hadda change of heart
hadda change of heart
hadda change of heart
hadda so-shul-istic surgery
so mine eyes have seen the glory
n disbelieve the perjury
hadda change
hadda change
ya know i said
i couldn’t wait
oh good god it’d be great
if we all
hadda change of heart [2014]

Tim Mills is as an educator/activist and began this life as a conscientious objector during the Viet Nam War and on to a rank & file union member. Mills has been an elected union official, but is proudest of the time spent on our local union newsletter. Mills writes guest columns in the Rockford Register Star for over 20 years. Mills says his politics are left of center, but believes progressives must start with the world as it is, not as we’d wish it to be.

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