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Being a Human Being
by Tom Leonard
Being a Human Being - Tom Leonard
Being a Human Being
for Mordechai Vanunu
not to be complicit
not to accept everyone else is silent it must be alright
not to keep one’s mouth shut to hold onto one’s job
not to accept public language as cover and decoy
not to put friends and family before the rest of the world
not to say I am wrong when you know the government is wrong
not to be just a bought behaviour pattern
to accept the moment and fact of choice
I am a human being
and I exist
a human being
and a citizen of the world
responsible to that world
—and responsible for that world
from outside the narrative: Poems 1965-2009 (Etruscan Books/Wordpower Press, 2011), Tom Leonard 2011, used by permission of the author.