Manifesto
Isn't it time, words of the world, to unite?
Time to resolve not to work anymore for the bosses
Who look upon you as so many hands and feet,
Drudges and drones in a garment sweatshop
Turning out coats so rich, so elegant,
They make the ugliest customers appear respectable.
Come gather, words, under the beautiful flag
I'm standing under, after my little stint
With lesser causes, the flag of art.
See how proudly it waves over a workroom
Where the management puts its employees first.
No more crowding together in ill-lit basements.
Each of you will receive the elbow room you deserve
By a bright window that opens on a garden,
Happy in an establishment where means and methods
Are just as important as any end.
"Accept no substitutes." That's the motto
I've sewn in our union logo. "One sentence
Stitched with mindfulness says more than ten
Pasted together to meet a deadline."
And here's a clause in the contract I'm offering
That says whenever you feel weary from over use
You can take off a month to get your strength back.
No need to worry that some scab of a synonym
Will be smuggled onto the payroll to do your job.
Imagine it, words: not to be asked anymore
To glorify causes you consider shameful
But to praise the beauty that's been neglected,
To draw a map showing it's not remote
But near to anyone willing to do some walking.
A map in your own style, your own inflections
Giving torque to the line or pushing out
Over the line to make room in the sentence
For canyons you won't be asked to fill in,
For knolls you won't be asked to smooth down.
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