Drums of Liberation

Beat the drums for liberation

The dark will fade when the sun awakes

Boom the drums toom-tah toom-tah

For the dawn of liberation

———

Alone in darkness

Chains confine me

Rattling shadows

of despair

A cracking whip tells me, ‘produce!

But you don’t get the product’

My back may break

But the rhythmic rake

Beats the drum for liberation

—

These shadow days

I restless toil

As soul-broke fall

beside me

A pistol sighs in task of culling

A useless “thing” that cannot work

My broke-heart beats

And trudging feets

Beat the drum for liberation

———

Beat the drums of liberation

The dark will fade when the sun awakes

Boom the drums toom-tah toom-tah

For the dawn of liberation

———

The sky’s obscured

By factory smoke

Where fires burn

with corpses

Churning gears tell me, ‘despair

I’ve made your chains to serve me,

Accept your fate

There is no gate

Which leads to liberation."

—

The darkness grows

In sky and cell

My chains are cold

And heavy

A passing draft sighs out, ‘just die,

This life is not worth living.

It’s best to be

Dead but free

Than to wait for liberation

———

Beat the drums of liberation

The dark will fade when the sun awakes

Boom the drums toom-tah toom-tah

For the dawn of liberation

———

Alone I wait

With my despair

And wonder

“Should I die?”

To free myself of endless toil

To leave the chains and cell

A weary sigh

“‘tis fate to die,

But living is rebellion.”

—

A sudden light

the shining moon

Breaks through

the covered sky

A wandering beam says to me,

“Hang on a while longer,

Your beating heart

Means you have part

In the hope of liberation.”

———

Beat the drums of liberation

The dark will fade when the sun awakes

Boom the drums toom-tah toom-tah

For the dawn of liberation

——

The darkness stirs with a sudden pale

The silence breaks with siren’s wail

And soldiers shout, “the wall’s been breached,”

Then take their guns from easy reach

The prisoner’s rise in their dark cells

The sounds of guns make their hearts swell

But all their hope’s in hesitation

Is this the boom of liberation?

——

Beneath the noise

Of shot and bomb

A quiet smile

Comes to the door

The rattling keys and fallings chains,

Whisper “now you’re nearly free,”

We leave the cell

and brave the quell

and fight on through the breach

—

The smoke and war

Recedes behind

My saviors fade

In shadows

The open world calls out to me,

“Come find me with a smile,

Walk on alone

O’er grass and stone

You’ll find me on the morrow.”

———

Beat the drums of liberation

The dark will fade when the sun awakes

Boom the drums toom-tah toom-tah

For the dawn of liberation

———

I walk all night

And come at last

To a pulsing,

Dancing ocean

The dancing waves call out to me,

“The dawn at last approaches

The dark is passed

Now hear at the last

The drums of liberation

—

And there I dance with Ocean sprays

And sandy exaltation

My dancing feet

the living beat

For the dawn of liberation

——

Beat the drums of liberation

The dark will fade when the sun awakes

Boom the drums toom-tah toom-tah

The drums of liberation

Boom the drums toom-tah toom-tah

For the dawn of liberation