Inspired by the anti-far right and No Kings rallies around the world today, I’ve rewritten Bob Dylan’s classic protest song to imagine how it might have been sung on the first Palm Sunday…
Come gather round people wherever you roam
Galilee or Judea, Corinth or Rome
Wherever you’ve travelled from this is your home
Jerusalem’s festival is waiting
And the king on a donkey is one of our own
Yeah the times they are a-changing
Come prophets and teachers, come Pharisees too
And see what the King on his donkey will do
If you’re cheating the poor then he’s coming for you
And he isn’t afraid to turn tables
He will take your injustice and replace it with the truth
Yeah the times they are a-changing
Come kings on your thrones with your weapons in hand
And armies in readiness at your command
Leaving trails of destruction all over the land
As you sit there ranting and raging
But the king on the donkey has peace in his hands
For the times they are a-changing
Come women and men, the old and the young,
The uncertain, the lonely, the prodigal sons,
Let the king on the donkey loosen your tongue
Grab your palm branches high and start waving
There’s plenty of Hosannas left to be sung
For the times they are a-changing
The line it is drawn, the die it is cast,
And the world as we know it will soon be surpassed
Cos the king on the donkey is coming on fast
The old order is rapidly fading
Yeah the last shall be first and the first shall be last
For the times they are a-changing
Rich Clarkson Poetry 