by Marlon Stern
…. Palestine to Oakland, San Salvador to Los Angeles, Ferguson to Baltimore, Chiapas to the Rio Grande, to newly disenfranchised people everywhere!
We are sick of your borders
and your endless wars
We will not take this anymore!
There can be a sustainable way of life once again!
This is a call for all people to join together
And aim for the truth
In the wake of environmental and socio-economic collapse,
We need to fight now if we can ever know love or harmony for ourselves or any living being
It is time to confront those that deny us the right to breathe
With backwards ideas of how the world thinks
It is time to embrace the change so we can make industry work for people and not the other way around.
We must not sit around laughing at Gaia and her increasingly inconsolable tears
Lest we dance in the ashes of civilization
The border, the global banking system and constant wars, the very convenient, dividing forces of patriotism will come down
But whose terms will it be on?
Yours or theirs?
Marlon Stern was born in the San Fernando Valley in 1984 to a Jewish father, 60, and a Salvadoran mother, 43. He grew up growing familiar with people from various walks of life because of the places family and friends took him, and because of the differences in culture at home. He was very reserved until middle school when Marlon began to really express himself. He hasn’t stopped since. Marlon is known for improvisational lyrics over guitar and banjo as well as making signs and stencils for protests and a poem about Occupy Los Angeles, MKUltra Attack, featured in the Revolutionary Poets BrigadeñLA Anthology. Marlon participated in Occupy, many protests and various 3rd party campaigns. This poem is from “The Border Crossed Us” anthology (see Oct. 10).
