the revolution
starts in whispers back alleys and coffee shop smoke
elusive as a single note carried on the wind of a thunderstorm
a relayed message in tapped out rhythms on barroom doors
backrooms at the office warehouse corners at the docks
in coffee shops late at night in meeting halls in upstairs bedrooms
thoughts take words join to become sentences paragraphs
giving birth to new philosophies political manifestos the spreading
a trembling in skin a trembling in thought
people brought together by a shared desire
a shared fear a beating heart an underground drumbeat
the softness of a whisper a brushstroke on canvas a congregation singing
in the snow-covered ruins of a bombed out chapel
hands held straining against crossed ropes agnostic
the wheat in the field defying the wind bent against
the reaper's blade becoming golden chaff spreading seed
waiting under cold dark months for sun to return then rising up
again then rising up again then rising up again then rising
copyright © Brian E. Langston
published in Poems Against War: A Journal of Poetry and Action, Volume 6 (Wasteland Press, 2007)