Category: URL has packed countless southeastern venues. As anyone who has ever experienced an UpRite Lions show will attest

PERNICIOUS POETS by @bondjamiebond from @unmutedink

PERNICIOUS POETS

What if
What if what I LOVE to do
would actually break the law?
If I didn’t give back to the world
and only made withdrawals
If professions were religions
and religions were professions
If I didn’t care to know the answers
to any of these questions

What if
The secret to flourishing was failure
and our society was diffident
There was a sniper for kids
who exhibited forms of articulateness
We all gossiped about the same nothing topics
and had radical standards
An act of terrorism was promoted
coupled with a bounty for killing poets

Imagine if
Being Sapphic were sanctioned
but poets were viewed as a deplorable
Every lyricist in the world
got discriminated against and unable to vote
Poets had to be in the closet
and could only be heard in a few states
Lawyers and judges gave the world free services
but poets had to pay

How about
If there was never a such thing
as oral history, church hymns or slavery
If poets had their tongues or hands cut off
if caught with pen and a paper
If we served jail time for reciting
and drug dealers had more rights than us
If freedoms of speech as our first amendment
included everybody BUT us

Let’s just say what if
It cost us more money to be self published
than to send our kids to college
Before you could practice your passion or craft
you had to have a doctorate
They applauded women at the abortion clinics
and child porn was acceptable
Threats of aggression plagued every open mic location
and it was permissible

This is why
I speak about unfairness
trying to be a voice for those who can’t
I try to say what I mean
and mean what I speak refusing to recant
Pernicious poets agape
I guard the morale of those who are broken
UNMUTED INK becomes a bodyguard
to those who are outspoken

~~ I believe in freedom of speech
and every layer of expression
Jamie Bond
middle name
silence broken!