Outside Agitators

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Outside Agitators

 

There are always rabblerousers

In every cause and every movement

There is always an element of chaos

Born of anger, rage, frustration

But when the words Outside Agitators

Are used by the authorities beware

What follows is an act of brutal violence

In the name of law and order

 

Outside Agitators was used to batter

The marchers for civil rights

On the Edmund Pettis Bridge

 

Outside Agitators was used to justify

The killing of student protestors at

Kent and Jackson State

 

Outside Agitators was employed in the

Tear gas and baton attacks on students

Of the free speech movement in Berkeley

 

So when you hear the words Outside

Agitators beware: We know what follows