Free World Order

17/10/94, rewritten 3/4/97

We live in the Free World,
yet shackled in our silence
we are as quiet
as a doormouse.

We forget in our reticence,
those who spoke so loudly
under iron fists,
behind the Iron Curtain.

If thought isn’t punished,
we forget we posess tools of freedom.

Indecision leaves us with empty hands,
lack of analysis gives us empty heads.

If democracy is desirable,
why does desire fade away?
Like the ghosts of Stalin
our insight has deserted us.

We drown in hyperconsumption...
voices of dissent are so faint,
heard vaguely in the distance.
So radically silent is our remembrance.