You say you want a revolution
and who could argue with that?
Bad is avalanching into worse
and we are all in its path.
But don’t buy a gun.
The people you would be fighting
already have bigger guns, and
more will to shoot them.

Don’t bother arming yourself.
Instead, disarm.
Disarm yourself of your assumptions.,
and of your brittle belief that you know
how things should be.
Disarm yourself of expectation.
You will be wrong.

Disarm yourself of the need
for comfort. Go lightly
into places where you are a stranger.
Disarm yourself of loyalty
to what is normal, but false.
Pledge allegiance
to the tree outside your window,
to your neighbor’s children,
to the speed of light.

Fill your arms with fruit, with flowers,
with a dog or a cat or a lover
or a mug of hot tea.
Fill your body with singing
or dancing or the scent
of bay trees in the rain.
Empty your world of all
that fails to serve the revolution,
that fails the test
of the seventh generation.

Commit to the revolution and
I promise that we will win.
Not, of course, that everything
will be fine. It never is.
Revolution isn’t the same as victory.
Revolution is the turning of a wheel
whose essence is change.
—-- Lynn Ungar

[Poem from “Breathe” by Lynn Ungar: http://www.lynnungar.com.]