The poem works best when read aloud so I have a link to an audio file but I can be a bit hard to understand so I provided the poem in writing as well.

Link

If I was a soldier in the army of the lord
I would strike down this old world’s idols
And raise her wretched poor
I would breathe flame on police stations
Let the people loot the stores
And always marching beside me
Holding a flaming sword
Would be
Old John Brown

Many martyrs came before us
But with one voice we’ll say no more
Our hands will build a new world
Dismantle every tool of war
Erect a marble gallows
For every last landlord
And with us
Will be John Brown

In the past they’ve stabbed and shot us
Left us burned and crucified
They may think that they have beat us
But they're in for a surprise
For when they hang one John Brown
From his blood an army forms
And those souls
Are marching on

Lord you must forgive me
I have hate within my veins
For those who put
children in cages
Slaughter black men
without shame
And sometimes a wound’s so rotten
It can only be cleaned with flame
That’s what John Brown taught us all

  • StalinVibes [she/her,comrade/them]
    hexagon
    ·
    4 years ago

    For context, I wrote this originally back in early July, (though I've been tinkering with it on and off since then), after my brother and I got trapped downtown along with thousands of other people when the police shut off the trains and just started beating, gassing, arresting, kettling and generally brutalizing everyone. It was kinda just about capturing being pissed at everything.

  • SaberTail [any]
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    4 years ago

    Please fix your :matt: link, thanks