Saturday, July 26, 2014

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

Katsbeach

Event: 500 Word Challenge
Time: 30 mins

***

It was time for revolt, it was time for anger.
Work, work and struggle for nothing more than work.
Be lost, be penniless, be a slave.
Be. No food. 
Be. No home.
Be, the emptiness of any tomorrow ahead.
Be. No more.
And they fought back. They believed. They could. They did.
Others didn’t. They condemned ideas, they condemned actions, they condemned everyone swiftly.
And a martyr became nothing more than a name on a yellow, brittle piece of paper, a faint recollection of an immemorial past.
They tried to run, to hide, but they couldn’t. They didn’t.
Lives irreparably uprooted into faraway lands filled with unknown nothingness, filled with the certainty of an impossible return.
They struggled. They fought. They lost.
Back then, they lost. Yes…
Today, they are recalled. They are here.
Their ideas, their actions, their tomorrows became our today, their message still alive and meaningful, almost unbelievably meaningful, in a world of no tomorrows, pessimists say.
But now they live on. They live.
Now, they do.

2 comments:

  1. a timeless message and rallying call!! I can see the tolpuddle martyrs clearly, fists upraised!

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    1. This was a tough one... I admit my classes in Brit history didn't go to such detail as to teach who the Tolpuddle martyrs were! So, I had to spend a bit of time researching and trying to come up with an idea. The "manifest" approach seemed to work well within the time-frame I had. I was short on the number of words though. *sigh* Writing is tough! LOL

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