Your arms are strong but your words are not
You hide behind colors that stand for something,
But you stand for nothing.
These colors, you say
Took man to the moon
But if they did it was only to retrieve the dreams
They had sent there in their youth
To give them back to their children.
Bravery is not a uniform.
You cannot take it off at your leisure.
It is a gift from your father and his father
And from the monsters under his bed
No different from the monster under your own.
And though I, too
Tremble at the foot of eternity
I will not cower at your threats of equality
Or your promises of freedom.
You say your colors can feed empty mouths
And fill empty hands
But those hands are turned brown
From the land that they sow
And you cannot stain them with your colors of freedom.
And if it is the line between man and god
That you wish to blur
Let this be a prayer to Man-
Your colors are not those that pave the roads of heaven,
And if tonight your gun is left smoking,
Let it be because you've used it
To kill the demons in your soul.