Now Is Your Time
The song of the ancestors in the hardest of times
Quiet, please, if you don’t mind We said
We’re quite comfortable
With YouTube and Netflix, and even if we don’t chill as often as we used to We’ve earned this life and we’re not hurting anyone
The voices laugh, not gently
Earned?
You inherited this life from us who came before
Your ease was purchased in the frozen forests of the north when the wolves howled just beyond the fire while the children cried for their empty bellies
Comfort’s price was rivers dried up and herds vanished, under a torrid southern sun
Your luxuries were paid for when we sailed tiny boats into the great oceans saw our people dashed against the ragged rocks and drowned then cursed the fates and built more boats
We suffered years of fire, blood, and the sword, when a human life was worth less than a bowl of rotten grain, and the best among us committed the greatest evils
So you might get fat in peace
Know that we paid this price with joy, we who were before you and are still with you, and know that we watch you with pride
But now is your time
The days of ease, rest, and safety have passed Take no time to mourn them
The tree of life is being gnawed through at its roots
The oracle who spoke truth is silenced under the clamour of the liars, the deceivers, and the dealers in death and despair
The clink and jingle of the betrayer’s silver echoes in the halls where the great dreamers of freedom walked
But
Every one of you, every one, from nursing babes to the old men and women half asleep in the park on an early summer day Carries the blood of warriors in your veins
You must find it
There can be no retreat from the battle that approaches
Rise up Now is your time