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Writer's pictureMichael Laxer

Good Morning Revolution




Good-morning, Revolution:

You're the very best friend

I ever had.

We gonna pal around together from now on.


Say, listen, Revolution:

You know, the boss where I used to work,

The guy that gimme the air to cut down expenses,

He wrote a long letter to the papers about you:

Said you was a trouble maker, a alien-enemy,

In other words a son-of-a-bitch.

He called up the police

And told 'em to watch out for a guy

Named Revolution.


You see,

The boss knows you're my friend.

He sees us hangin' out together.

He knows we're hungry, and ragged,

And ain't got a damn thing in this world -

And are gonna do something about it.

The boss's got all he needs, certainly,

Eats swell,

Owns a lotta houses,

Goes vacationin',

Breaks strikes,

Runs politics, bribes police,

Pays off congress,

And struts all over the earth -

But me, I ain't never had enough to eat.

Me, I ain't never been warm in winter.

Me, I ain't never known security -

All my life, been livin' hand to mouth,

Hand to mouth.


Listen, Revolution,

We're buddies, see-

Together,

We can take everything:

Factories, arsenals, houses, ships,

Railroads, forests, fields, orchards,

Bus lines, telegraphs, radios,

(Jesus! Raise hell with radios!)

Steel mills, coal mines, oil wells, gas,

All the tools of production,

(Great day in the morning!)

Everything -

And turn 'em over to the people who work.

Rule and run 'em for us people who work.


Boy! Them radios

Broadcasting that very first morning to USSR:

Another member the International Soviet's done come

Greetings to the Socialist Soviet Republics

Hey you rising workers everywhere greetings

And we'll sign it: Germany

Sign it: China

Sign it: Africa

Sign it: Poland

Sign it: Italy

Sign it: America

Sign it with my one name: Worker

On that day when no one will be hungry, cold, oppressed,

Anywhere in the world again.


That's our job!


I been starvin' too long,

Ain't you?


Let's go, Revolution! - Langston Hughes, USA 1932

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