Where will you stand

Part 2 of the poem "Long March"

As I hear those words,
At home and around the world
As days mingle into the night
Where will you stand?
When questions be raised
By you alone,
in your conscience
Where will you stand?
What will you do?
As the chance have come and gone


Where will you stand?
Will you carry it like a gift?
Or a burden upon your soul
Where will you stand?
When freed from these shackles
Of our past and present


I know where I will be
In words black and blood red
Carry I will like a gift
The deafening noise inside my soul
As days mingle into nights
Find you will, where I found you
In the old districts, in the old quarters
In hunger and in poverty,
Find you will, where I found you
This is where I will stand
With you, in presence and in absence
With words and with my soul
With action and courage

Where will you stand?
In moments of time or ignorance
I know where I stand
With you, in hunger and in fatigue
On roads, and in streets
In light and in formation,
Where will you stand?

Where will you stand?
I know where I will be
With you, my country, my home
With truth and with light
In words black and blood red!

KASHKIN