The Low Road

What can they do to you?
Whatever they want.

They can set you up,
They can bust you,
They can break your fingers,
They can burn your brain with electricity,
Blur you with drugs
Till you can't walk,
Can't remember;
They can take your child,
Wall-up your lover.
They can do anything
You can't stop them from doing.

How can you stop them?
Alone,
You can fight,
You can refuse,
You can take what revenge you can,
but they will roll over you.

But two people
Fighting back-to-back
Can cut through a mob,
A snake-dancing file,
Can break a cordon,
Can meet an army.
Two people can keep each other sane,
Can give support,
Conviction, love, hope, sex.

Three people are a delegation,
A committee, a wedge.
With four you can play bridge
And start an organization.
With six you can rent a whole house,
Eat pie for dinner with no seconds,
And hold a fund-raising party.
A dozen make a demonstration.
A hundred fill a hall.
A thousand have solidarity
And your own newsletter;
Ten thousand, power
And your own paper;
A hundred thousand,
Your own media;
Ten million,
Your own country.

It goes on one at a time,
It starts when you care to act,
It starts when you do it again
After they say no,
It starts when you say WE
And know who you mean,
And each day you mean one more.