The Diaspora of the Dispossesed is Over

Written By New York Poet J.H. Johns

Narrated By Paul Churchill Mann

                                                

                                                It’s been a long time coming,

                                                eons-

                                                millions and tens and hundreds of millions of years;

 

                                                starting somewhere-

                                                microscopically-        

                                                in the slime and the ooze,

                                                but, more “recently”-

                                                taking a more recognizable form-

                                                in the prehistoric caves;

 

                                                they were nothing;

 

                                                not hunters;

                                                not gatherers;

                                                not water-fetchers-

                                                and definitely

                                                not defenders

                                                let alone warriors;

 

                                                yes,

                                                they were nothing except alive;

                                                not a one had a productive purpose,

                                                but they were found to be useful;

 

                                                disposably relegated

                                                to sleeping at the mouth of the cave;

                                                to be both

                                                the victims and the call to alarm

                                                of an attack;

                                                predatory or tribal;

 

                                                alerting the soon-to-be defenders

                                                to rise and repel;

 

                                                and,

                                                seeing as they were fed-

                                                maybe even a few allowed to mate-

                                                it seemed just

                                                though their mortality

                                                could easily be high;

 

                                                thus,

                                                as such,

                                                they boded and bore;

                                                their spirit

                                                and

                                                mentality;

 

                                                literally,

                                                watching each other’s back

                                                while

                                                equally watching

                                                all that was not theirs;

 

                                                quickly,

                                                they came to want

                                                and resent

                                                and

                                                eventually entertained fantasies

                                                of both retribution, expropriation

                                                and revenge;

 

                                                secret thoughts

                                                that divided them

                                                from the rest-

                                                but not from each other;

 

                                                alone, though,

                                                save for the scattered that they were;

 

                                                plodding on through the ages

                                                before-

                                                and, then,

                                                through

                                                recorded history

 

 

                                                occasionally finding the “right others”

                                                to

                                                hate, marginalize, persecute and kill-

                                                but

                                                rarely galvanizing;

                       

                                                they were

                                                isolated;

                                                separate;

                                                mostly powerless;

 

                                                until

                                                they were united as one;

 

                                                one beast

                                                with multiple heads;

 

                                                one force

                                                uniting

                                                through

                                                what is now called-

 

                                                social media.

END