Protesting

We see the protests massing in the streets,

the people waving signs, shouting shouts,

denouncing perversion of power and thuggish abuse

of the poor, the weak, the defenseless, the president's targets,

rejecting the president's backers' mindless fears,

the fears of fearful losers looking for scapegoats,

the childish fears of ignorant, darkened minds.

• • •

But remember, people, how to protest with power:

Go to a place where oppressors ply their oppression.

Take signs, supplies, and righteous indignation

and thousands of decent citizens set against

unwisely elected, vicious, venal leaders.

Then sit on the ground in your thousands, right in the way

of oppressors plying oppression, merely to make

your disapproval annoying—the visual sign

that you "will not stand" for their cruelty, bullying postures,

jaw-thrusting braggadocio, tough-guy swagger,

and unjust use of power to force compliance

or silence while they destroy the civil compact.

Oppose their degenerate threats with mere annoyance.

• • •

Then wait. If they lose their temper and overreact,

it becomes instantly clear who is immoral.

The pictures of peaceful crowds savaged by louts

in uniforms, wielding clubs and weapons against

merely annoying groups of protesters sitting

quietly, chanting principled disapproval—

nothing turns the people against fake "leaders"

more quickly and resolutely than unjust aggression.

• • •

Do it right, do it in masses, do it

day after day, week after week, until

the power shifts back to its rightful owners: the decent,

who demand decent rule by decent rulers.