Too Long Ignored, a poem

How long can you push people around, refuse to listen to them, treat their worries as inconsequential?  

Hide drum beats,
whisper dreams in our sleep,
stir us to waking,
drive us like sheep.

Woken ire thrives,
like smoke from fire;
anger burnt and hatred crisp,
inhibitions framed a liar.

Simple men once,
now bereft of symbols,
empty crowns full to burst,
minds ablaze with cymbals.

Stolen time, thief of lives,
nothing left from the taking,
in a voice like thunder
demands the world's breaking.

We rise, in rage, enraged
beyond capacity for compassion,
only violent action remains
until the world's left ashen.

A poem by Harakhte