Obscenity

Let's go to the 7-Eleven
Get some milk, bread, beer
Don't forget those smokes
"Is that all?" asks the clerk
You look behind the counter
There's Playboy, Penthouse
the infamous Hustler
You take one of each

You pay, you exit the store
But you path is barred
The new police are there
Remember them from the news:
Conservatives, fundamentalists,
radical feminists, right-wingers
All of them censors
The defenders of morals

The Crusades, the Holocaust
Islamic jihads, Bosnia, Rwanda
History forever repeats
As man builds, man destroys
He is of a different creed
His faith is wrong
Kill him they cry
Take their lives

Our people are sick and dying
Our children are discarded
People are homeless and hungry
Our fellow man is denied his dignity
This is civilization?
Silence those who would disagree
Ban his works, discredit him
Who are you to deny him

Defenders/guardians/protectors
Your concerns are much too parochial
You cannot see the injustice
You are blinded by self-righteousness
Hearing only your clarion call
Deafened you become undone
Yet you worry about my reading
Tell me about the obscenity