Dead Fish Poem by GORDON GILHULY

you speak of others,

aliens, who steal our jobs:

my silence damns them



if I do not speak up now

when it matters that I speak



you lash your young son

with word-whips that flay his soul:

my dumbness condones



when will it matter that I

speak up that I add my voice?



you close our schools and

champion the bottom line:

my muteness concurs



if I do not put my words

and body on the line here



your greed sends children

off to poverty and war:

my restraint murders



where will it matter that my

body stands in defiance?



the opposite of

courage is not cowardice

but conformity



even a dead fish can go with the flow