Black Ribbon Day

Walk out to the road
Where all the others go
If all goes to plan
We’ll find a place in line
It’s almost starting time
It’s time we took a stand
Two million people strong
Four hundred miles long
Of strangers holding hands

A revolution on Black Ribbon Day
A better solution is the Baltic Way
Peacefully united — have you heard?
We cannot be divided and conquered
Or whatever, any longer
Because together, we are stronger
On Black Ribbon Day

On a workday in August
We’ll see what freedom costs us
And what it truly means
There is a shuttle bus
To get the rest of us
We stand along the street
Waving flags at passing cars
Reminding them of who they are
And what it means to be

A revolution on Black Ribbon Day
A better solution is the Baltic Way
Peacefully united — have you heard?
We cannot be divided and conquered
Or whatever, any longer
Because together, we are stronger
On Black Ribbon Day

Reagan and Gorbachev
Blowing each other off
From both sides of the Wall
It’s nineteen eighty-nine
This is a changing time
But then again, aren’t they all?
Perestroika and glasnost
Vladimir Lenin’s ghost
Can watch the empire fall

A revolution on Black Ribbon Day
A better solution is the Baltic Way
Peacefully united — have you heard?
We cannot be divided and conquered
Or whatever, any longer
Because together, we are stronger
On Black Ribbon Day

Declaring independence
Our principles to defend us
We hold onto each other’s hands
Breaking the shackles with a chain
The people have a voice again
All across this land
Vilnius is where it begins
I hear it ends in Tallinn
A message anyone can understand

A revolution on Black Ribbon Day
A better solution is the Baltic Way
Peacefully united on August twenty-third
We cannot be divided and conquered
Or whatever, any longer
Because together, we are stronger
On Black Ribbon Day

© 2021 Zach Sands, PhD