Sweet pea

This is the world in my palm. 
Sweet satisfaction. Full belly and overflowing 
heart, strung like guitar strings whispering
lullabies and love songs on an endless loop.
This is dirt, twig, sunshine, 
flower and bloom of hope. 
The steady beating heart of humans 
and the hum of hands holding across our whole history.
We have fed our children peas to make them strong, 
their small spoons spilling emeralds
like rainfall.

Monsanto, you cannot put a patent on life
because you do not own it. 
Somewhere deep down inside of this seed,
roots are waiting to sprout ropes 
as thick as galaxies which will
choke out pesticides and bottom lines.

Give the people what was always theirs to begin with - 
sweet corn, rich tomatoes, kale the color of happiness,
early morning quiet, the ability to perform the magic
of bringing something from nothing 
with love  and love.
 
I am watching the soybean vines 
bash their faces against the sun repeatedly
while following the shadow of a plane
delivering death to the third world.
 
You have corrupted the very thing that should
nurture, comfort, and heal. Twisted our food chain
into shackles and sharpened knives.
 
Debtors prison for those who, in good faith,
gave you every precious cent they could hold
into their dirty and scratched palms,
lying awake at night in the heat
dreaming of vines and leaves,
stem and stamen.
 
You murder the land and the people
just to hear the plink of your coffers filling
each day then rationalize it
with petri dishes, and poison.

No matter how many three pieces suits 
you dress it in, this is still the same thievery it’s always been.
You steal the only things we have worth anything at all - 
health, a place on this planet 
in which to put our feet up for a moment,
to hold in weary arms those that we love,
to tip a glass of clean water to smiling lips
as we drink to the future, to watch our children grow.

Your  lab coats and toxic test tubes have nothing to do
with feeding the world
and everything to do with big business.
We already have enough food on the planet to feed each other
if we could just sit down together
without legislature, trade sanctions. and stock indexes 
but you keep knocking the plates off the table. 

See this seed. We will fight for it. ​