history lessens in poetry

It’s important to remember how in context of the time
the Second Amendment wasn’t about “freedom”
it was about arming to put down slave rebellions.
We’ve forgotten how ugly it always was.
So many original sins baked into the American pie,
compromises to human rights for socioeconomic expedience that we’ve never excised.
There is money in making us forget how ugly it always was.
Remember when we thought The Morton Downey Jr Show was our culture’s nadir?
We were some naive-ass sons of bitches then.
Back then, it was klansmen throwing chairs on trash television,
now it’s klansmen advising major presidential candidates
best known as trash television stars.
We had no idea how ugly it was gonna get.
Because we’d forgotten how ugly it always was.
We’re not allowing hate as an easy shortcut to unjust power anymore,
don’t pretend it’s discrimination against you, bigots, evolve instead.
Because we’re starting to remember how ugly it always was, whether you like it or not.
They only wanted the guns so they could shoot an oppressed underclass to protect
their fucked up way of life
now they only want the guns so they can shoot an oppressed underclass to protect
their fucked up way of life
but at least back then they were stupid enough to almost mostly admit it
and now they pretend that the truth never happened and
it’s some other shitty set of reasons
only because we have let our history lessons lessen and lessen over time
because there was money in making us forget how ugly it was.
There is money in making us forget how ugly it is.
But there are things that are more important than money and
here’s the thing they really don’t want you to know
they were always more important than money
people goddamned mattering is not a new thing.
We’re not going to let them make us forget
anymore.