Original Upload from @rcktmn in the TRA Library: available on the TRA discord server ----- Glory is gone, the grey-grown stain of street-strife Bleeds into the sky’s blue rim Monuments stand stone-still, thumbs raised and blind-eyed Frozen in a broken land History hangs heavy, hollow and worn It presses, it pulls at the heart Hope is pulled out, dust drifts across the ground The future wears flint and says: go Walk lonely, walk without loyalty Walk apart, don’t pretend Silence keeps seeping slowly Under the skin again Don’t bear it Don’t brook it If this sour silence wins If it carries the day If you stand still While the shadows creep If the wolves wake While the shepherds sleep Then woe Woe on the womb Woe on the nest Your children The untouched The unvexed And I — what am I, dragged down by gravity By the pull of the ground below My pale head pressed low, no birds in the air No skylarks rising, no song Only holes, filling the mind Where thought once burned and lived Now only numbness, now only night The sour, sick end of the light Listen now, the test, the terrible test is this To trade the kiss of peace For the hiss of a bullet If I can shoot the rabbit If I can still that trembling breath Then the heart hardens, the soul turns to steel I can crush the fascist under my heel I can kill the man as I killed the hare Despair — it is done The blood is bare Don’t bear it Don’t brook it If this sour silence wins If it carries the day If you stand still While the shadows creep Then woe Woe on the womb Woe on the nest Your children The untouched The unvexed They are next for the nausea They are the next The next
