“No doubt they’ll sing in tune after the Revolution.”
-Kamarovsky, Doctor Zhivago (film)
Everyone seems to clench his fist these days In solidarity with ephemera While setting fire to green recycling bins Hurling someone else’s bicycle through a window
Armed with their undergraduate degrees The comrades liberate a coffee shop Wifi-ing the revolution of the day Empowerment by beating love to death
Loudsplaining authentic victimization Posing for selfies with a stolen ‘phone
II.
Their inhumanity seemed a marvel of class-consciousness, their barbarism a model of proletarian firmness…
-Doctor Zhivago, p. 349
Everyone seems to clutch his flag these days In solidarity with a past that wasn’t While setting fire to misspelled cardboard signs Hurling someone else’s beer into a crowd
Armed with their lurid Confederate tats The Something.Right liberate a dumpster Bull-horning the counter-revolution Empowerment by beating love to death
Bellowing their Reconquista of stench Posing behind their cheap gas station shades
III.
“I used to admire your poetry...I shouldn't admire it now. I should find it absurdly personal. Don't you agree? Feelings, insights, affections... it's suddenly trivial now. You don't agree; you're wrong. The personal life is dead…”
-Strelnikov to Yuri, Doctor Zhivago (film)
Some few embrace civilization these days In solidarity with humanity While lighting one small candle as a votive Whispering an Ave into the Light
Armed with wonder through pen and flute and brush Recusants choose the liberation given In singing of the eternal verities Self-empowerment happily denied
With love, with poetry, music, and art Celebrating life on this summer day