Rise Up Rap No. 1

Darby Riley

November 5, 2024

All you have to do

is, first you have to care

then you have to wake up

see what’s happening, see why

see how to change it

work with others, make a plan

make it spread, make it fun

joyful, hopeful, all the rage,

a way out of world’s end –

you have to be so many

that you run the city, then the state

the whole country – all the skills

of everyone in charge working

to stop the madness, no more

killing nature or each other

the end of everything for sale

the end of me, the start of us

the end of nations, the start of world

to keep everything alive

to make soil, rivers

forests and seas like new again

to make love of the earth

the end of money as god 

Darby Riley is a lawyer and Sierra Club volunteer in San Antonio. He has hosted a monthly
poetry writing workshop since 1992. His poems have been published in several anthologies,
including Lone Star Poetry, and several local publications, including the San Antonio Express-
News.