Below is the MAV poem that I read last night. It's not the best thing I've ever written, but I think it has its merits. It was both fun to write and fun to read, although I definitely need to work on my reading skillz! :-)

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MAVctivist

Gather around while we drop this topic
To those little people whose self esteem
Hovers at microscopic
Volunteering our time because we want to
And because we choose to
Student activist is how we rock it

Because…
Right now there’s probably a guy
Whose workday ended up all wack
And he’s thinking way back
To when his dad downed a fifth of jack
Yelled at his mom
Gave her 6 punches to her face,
A couple to her back,
All of his life’s lessons learned from a hand smack

He sees his dad’s face and defiles
And thinks of his mom all the while
His hatred for him piles
On top of his deeply rooted denial
Ain’t no river in Egypt
Streaming down his wife’s crimson face single file
Mile after mile after mile

He’s never been told that this cycle ends with you
He doesn’t realize that
Life doesn’t have to be shades of black and blue
Shades of a cop car,
of her face veiled by bruises too
if he breaks the cycle life begins anew

We gotta make words and actions like juice
We gotta make it freshly squeezed and mass produced
So we’re gonna let our words flow profuse
Hoping to make old thoughts appear obtuse
And hopefully getting men to stop the abuse

Because…
Right now there’s some party time frat boy
Who hides behind a greek lettered sweatshirt decoy
and holds rape, beer, rape, beer, and rape among life’s joys;
partying it up too much
head filled with misogynistic noise
thinking that women are nothing but his toys

He’s at a party
And his heartbeat is starting to race
And he’s looking into his girlfriend’s passed out face
He doesn’t respect her and cool out,
He doesn’t respect himself
So he chooses to disgrace
needless to say
he traded in his textbooks for a felony rape case
When he could have had the taste
Of antiquated thoughts being erased

So I have one last thing to say to you all
You have a choice
You can live with your silence
Or you can speak with your voice
You can hide behind your fear
Or you can get up off your rear
Take a look in the mirror
And ask yourself
What can I do?
Can I make a difference too?
Just remember
You can do nothing while you live in silence
We can do everything when we stop the violence
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matt out