Free Speech Zones (A Villanelle)

A poem dedicated to the heroes of OCCUPY,
Who are standing up to the evil and its minions

Soon despots can gloat, secure on their thrones.
We'll see the dark path down which we've been led
Now that dissent's confined to "Free Speech Zones."

They've picked their teeth with First Amendment bones
Their security measures fill us with dread;
Soon despots can gloat, secure on their thrones.

Who has the courage left to hurl more stones
At the uniformed thugs whose tasers we've fled
Now that dissent's confined to "Free Speech Zones?"

Too few resist Tyranny's chaperones,
Too mind-numbed to know that they've been misled.
Soon despots can gloat, secure on their thrones.

Listen, you can hear Miss Liberty's groans
"What a sad lot of passive wage slaves we've bred
Now that dissent's confined to Free Speech Zones."

When will we realize Freedom has fled?
Liberty's departed; she's left us for dead.
Despots can gloat now, secure on their thrones
Dissent's been compressed into "Free Speech Zones."