When you stop listening to others, they stop listening to you.
When you stop speaking up, you stop being heard.
When you walk away, you’re irrelevant to the discussion.

You wonder how it was that you were ever on the same side in the first place.
You never liked him/her anyway – and you just remembered that.
You imagine what it would be like to be on the same side again.
You dream that you can be
You’re sure that you won’t be
And how you see it is how it ultimately plays out – violins or brass
A wedding march, a requiem mass
Take your places
Strike up the band

You can choose to ignore
Or merely to bore
Hide thread
Go to bed
In disgust – vow you’re gone
TS’d or out like a Drama Queen
Same dif
GBCW

We can throw our fists in the air
Throw our hands up in despair
Throw the baby out with the bathwater
Throw in the towel
Kick it to the curb
Good riddance to bad rubbish

How can everybody else be so wrong
When I know that I’m so right?

We can take a step forward
And move ahead
We can take a step backward
And learn from past mistakes
We can do both
Like walkin’ and chewin’ gum
There was a time
We knew how to do them simultaneously
Without breakin’ a sweat

We can protest
We can march
We can sign a petition
Rely on repetition
Or be bold
Take hold
Say something new – or pretend it’s LBN
When it’s really Op/Ed, at best

We can dare to speak to/for the people en masse
We can timidly, but decidedly, go about changing one heart/one mind
We can say, with determination, Yes, we can!
Or we can state, with resignation, Come to think of it – no, we can’t

We can divide ourselves into discussion groups
Insistent that WE know what’s best
What’s most important
What’s a priority – and what isn’t
Because WE know it all

We can obfuscate
Eliminate
Quote stats
Twist the facts
Italize, bold
Do as we’re told
Feign intelligence
Fake indifference
Decry, disappoint
Point fingers
Lay blame
Flame

We can talk to each other
And listen
Or not

But if we don’t learn to row this boat in the same direction, all hands on oars, we’re all going down.