Don't Rise!

It's not worth it!
But all the same
They rise to fight,
They rise and rise and rise again,
Day after day,
Fearing the time
When they must fall helpless
As do all eventually,
Into decay.
And with every rise
They sacrifice a little more
To the machine,
At first begrudgingly,
And then with steam,
Until finally,
They chant in time
To the grinding of its wheels
And march along in silent disregard
Of the ones it crushes
Beneath the mass 
Of its enormous frame.
And you would think
That it was all there was 
Of the world
For how they rise and rise.
But it's not worth it!
Stay down!
If you can't rise
To something more than that.
Stay down!
And die if you must!
But do not live to serve
The grind
That drives the souls of men
To hell and to the grave!
Oh man! Don't rise!
And let that great machine
March on without you!
Let it grind
The bones of the poor
Without your pushing it along!
Oh man! Is it not worth your life
To be free from the blood of these?
Don't rise, oh man!
Don't rise.