Canto IV Revolutionary's Creed
I. The Abolition of Property
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You say the rich are greedy. True enough,
for we have seen them at the trough
squishy, spineless, like sea worms gulping
and vomiting through a single cloacal orifice.
Yet we do not condemn their appetites,
(for what living creature is without desire?)
but that life’s feast is too rich for them.
They are bland and bloodless. You say the rich
conspire to deprive the worker of his labor,
the family of their dignity and home.
Parasites do not conspire but
through smiles and frowns communicate
all the assurances and privileges of class.
Blind to the beast behind the smoothened brow,
they have trained gangs of psychopaths
in blue to execute their secret lusts.
They parcel out what’s yours and mine,
but always theirs; they oversee the landlord’s
ownership of where we live, the boss’s
control of the passing minutes of our lives.
The revolutionary must abandon
goods and home, wandering bereft,
exposed to the elements and everyone’s scorn.
The revolutionary must embrace
the world’s sorrow every night and rise
each day tormented by renewed self-doubt.
The revolutionary must live on edge,
paranoid, insomniac, tireless
for Capital does not sleep but whips around
the planet 24/7 on electron streams.
Surely the revolutionary must be -
something of a masochist.