POET, SONGWRITER, CLIMATE ACTIVIST

Prologue

There’s a bunch of old white men

They have got this little pen

That they would like to put you in

Just to see you shrink

 

Tell you what you cannot say

Twist you round in every way

Make you stay where you have to stay

And never let you think

 

Don’t be an activist

   Or culturally sensitive

Don’t be an advocate

  Or all-inclusive

Don’t mention racism

  Or sexual preferences

Don’t say oppression

  Or Native American

 

Chorus

These are just words – what are they for

 If you suppose them, distort or oppose them

 If you invent, prevent or ignore

 If you just think them,

 Understand or wink them

 To the authorities waiting at the door

 

Don’t say pollution

  Or climate solutions

There is no need

  For people-centered care

Don’t say women, female or victim

  Not to mention gender violence

Don’t say pronoun, tribal or bias

  Don’t say privilege, they or them or race

 

Chorus

Erase immigrants (none of us are immigrants)

Ignore barriers (there are never barriers)

Scratch out Feminist, indigenous or sex

   Delete heritage or Latin-x

Never use Black with a capital B

   Don’t be political

Or try to help the vulnerable

  (Air is always cleaner in poor communities)

 

Coda

Tear it up / take them back

The words we use / the facts we lack

The things we know / ideas we choose

To build a world with a thousand views

(To fill our world with a thousand views)