by Buff Whitman-Bradley
Marching and dancing through the streets to discomfit the smug and proclaim the people’s democracy
We are the joyful noise
Blocking the doorways of larcenous banks
We are the joyful noise
Inviting downtown shoppers and luxury hotel guests to join us
We are the joyful noise
Defying the cops and staying put
We are the joyful noise
Making decisions without leaders
We are the joyful noise
Exchanging knowledge and skills and learning from each other
We are the joyful noise
Sharing food and tarps and sleeping bags and visions of another world
We are the joyful noise
Rejecting the death-worshiping money culture
We are the joyful noise
Resisting the corporate state and voracious insatiable capitalism
We are the joyful noise
Standing for the despised the oppressed the imprisoned the tortured the used and abused and discarded
We are the joyful noise
Standing for the trees and the animals the mountaintops and the rivers
We are the joyful noise
Standing for soil and seeds
We are the joyful noise
We are whistles and drums and tubas and trombones
And we are the joyful noise
We are chants and songs and orations and poems
And we are the joyful noise
We are full-throated voices and the Peoples’ Mic
And we are the joyful noise
We are friends and neighbors and parents and kids
And we are the joyful noise
Celebrating each other and invincible life in our struggle for the common good we are the 99%
And we are the joyful noise
Buff Whitman-Bradley's poetry has appeared in many print and online journals. With his wife Cynthia he is co-producer/director of the award-winning documentary film, Outside In, and co-editor of the forthcoming book About Face: GI Resisters Turn Against War (PM Press, 2011). He is also co-producer/director of the documentary Por Que Venimos.
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