Don’t say to me “I will die for you.”
Because you have died a little
Each sun rise and set
Each work day
Each debt
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You have died a little each day
Before my very eyes
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I have known that you were killing yourself
Because life was killing you
And that I, perhaps, was killing you too
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My mind will never be free from this shackle
As yours has never been free of your father’s
And he of his mother’s
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You say to me “this is the way it is”
But it’s not—
For some
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For some, life is a peaceful dream
Where their mothers and fathers wake easily
Where their every breath does not form the seal of their parent’s caskets;
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They will not know our ghosts
And these apparitions will not haunt them
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You say “I will die for you”
I say you do not understand the blow they have struck us
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These insidious voyeurs
Grinning shiny teeth as we grapple and clamor
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A false bible they have given us
To sit on their throne and say
“This is just the way it is”
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No.
I don’t have to bear their lies,
I won’t.
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You have lifted me higher
The backs of one hundred ancestors lay below my foot
Where you will lie
Lifting—
And I think you’ve forgotten
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Below the throned vipers feet
There is nothing but blood
And you are not them
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You say to me “I will die for you”
But I know the truth of it
They will go on draining you
Until they have bled you dry
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And you will believe you sacrificed yourself
And you will believe you have done it for me—
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So don’t say this to me now
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Don’t rest their despicable deeds
Upon my shoulders as a royal mantle
Don’t say to me “I will die for you”
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because they have taken you, already.
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