Volume 22, Number 36 | The Newspaper of Lower Manhattan | January 15 - 21, 2010

Downtown Poetry

Democracy Wall

By Carl R. Hultberg

Scratch a message in the paint
Make your magic mark on life

The forbidden word, the secret truth
Silent symbol of change from the state of sorrow and
strife

Others will see that they’re not alone
Take the example and join the growing throng

Everyone finally wondering
Why it’s taken this long

No one can beat you or take you away
If they don’t who it was who had something to say...

Now it’s the network, our new phones that type
The blogs and the comments after editorial posts

Three hundred messages every one citizen real
(Except for a few kids’ pranks and GOP ghosts)

Schoolteachers taking on those classroom bullies of hate
Far away yet right in sight of the reading crowd

Bush apparatchiks and racist hatemongers
Getting slapped right down

No this isn’t the stuff of your dreams
It’s just a bit of what the magic screen has come to
mean...

Carl R. Hultberg, a former Downtowner, writes RagMag, an email blast on politics and music where this poem first appeared. His email is carl.hultberg@nyu.edu.

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