The New Artist
By Jeff Sloan
The time has come
To change our time
To mark and scar the sand
With our footprints
The waiting;
Excruciatingly painful delay,
At last is over
The new day dawns
The day star has risen on
New morning promise
Sending prophets to the edges
Of reason and logic
Peer with me, over the cliff
Across vast heights of possibility and dare to share in my dream
The artists have gathered
Have long pushed and pulled at the idea
That must be born
Out of the suffering
Caused by short-sighted men and women
Brainwashed by their elders
They seek to divide
By money
By faith
By territory lines
With their unstoppable machines of propaganda they have lined our moral mural
With poverty, starvation, hatred, greed, war and death, instigation and intimidation in the guise of predictable entertainment
these are the false medications that they ply
For too long we have swallowed their insufferable stuff
And walked behind them in a haze under pretence that our harm is harmless
That our outright ignorance of the plight we have caused for others with our small share of Western fortunes
Hoarded by thieves who cannot even admit their own profession because they have been taught to ignore the pangs of guilt that gnaw at the marrow of their bones
Yes your children must eat
But they must also be instructed to feed those who have had the means to do so for themselves stripped away by ghosts on planets unreachable
They cannot eat the ancient beliefs that keep them hungry
The artist in our time
Must demonstrate the perils of continuing to follow in this madness.
We must show a better world.
A world of colour.
A world of inclusion.
A world where all of life benefits from the leadership of human kind.
A world very unlike our present own.
Strike down the power mad
The kings and priests and provocateurs
Strike down the foolish follower of outdated texts
Strike down the corporation that takes food from the mouths of babes
Strike down the violent, the stupid, the ignorant, the greedy, the repressor, judge, jury and executioner
Follow only the government that takes the whole world in peace and makes priority of undoing the separate damages that divide our species
Spit out your hate and follow me into fields of glorious understanding and inclusion.
We must feed and clothe and shelter each other.
But first, I must paint.
***
Ever yours'
J.S.