Tag: Social justice

Megaphone

~ Vanessa ~ 1 Comment

Somewhere in all the movement
I set down the megaphone,
Still hearing the echo of my own voice
As it traveled
North, East, South, West,
On to, up and down Main street;
Social leaders don’t choose
the precise moment
When they thus become
Leaders,
“Accidental” leadership
–The moment chooses them;
Nor do they choose
Exactly when
their time eclipses;
Social injustice
Is a warfare,
Literal,
and of daily heartbreak;
The activist by Call
Resides on this ground zero,
Tending, carrying, soothing and rallying,
In rotation
With other ethical co-conspirators,
A Rotation
To protect the already traumatized
From too
Too much;
Gradually, I took my leave
When the marches thinned,
And logistics began
to overshadow the purpose;
The march marches on
In different capacities,
As it has always,
My prayer is that our call
And the response
Forever is remembered,
re-called,
And flesh tones
Like and unlike mine
find purpose, place, and responsibility still
In the movement
Of heart,
Of calling out injustice
invoking community love,
And keeping the justice system
In check
With a social justice
Call
And response;
A leader still,
My call
Is a labor of love,
unending
A different hat I will wear for now,
As I heal and grow,
An injustice-weary heart.

Dream On, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2020

~ Vanessa ~ Leave a comment

This day of remembrance,
Year Two-Thousand-Twenty,
I wonder if Dr. King knew where we would be?
Would he have imagined a past black president?
The rise of fascism?
Renewed imperialism?
And neo-nazis?
Would he have imagined innocents in cages,
At our nation’s borders?
The threat of another new war?
Would he have imagined? …
I am sure he could have imagined,
But he also would imagine the struggle,
To rise up against hatred and bigotry,
To aim for the “beloved community”
He knew was perpetually in the distance,
It was always a dream,
A dream you can’t quite touch,
But a dream you can’t take away,
With bullets and bombs,
A dream can be reimagined, shared, Reinvigorated,
A dream you can keep dreaming,
If you have the will,
A dream is like a virus,
Inspiring it can spread, and spread,
And take hold of the system,
If not now, then when?
Our dream was his dream,
A dream reimagined,
A dream for our time,
A dream when black lives matter, unquestioned, undoubted,
A dream when immigrants, refugees are free,
And find promised land in the arms of their brethren,
A dream when brutality is not from our law enforced protectors,
A dream when “-isms” are not blind,
And don’t exist at all,
A dream when new divisions are not erected to substitute the old,
A dream we all feel the need to dream;
dream on.

Too Tough to Taste

~ Vanessa ~ Leave a comment

We must remember their pain
Let not unease make
Discussing, recognizing “Genocide,”
in it’s various forms,
A topic too tough to taste,
It is in our history,
It is in our blood,
It is in our now,
The stories,
The memories,
The fears,
The politics,
Of a present world,
That we now shape,
It is our duty to make right,
As much as we can,
And to be the seraphim,
Watching over,
To keep a new pain
From beginning again

Tear Gas Tears

~ Vanessa ~ Leave a comment

Tears streaming
they Run,
Eyes stinging
they run,
Lungs burning
they run,
Anywhere
They Run

Run,
Away from oppression,
Away from persecution

Rush,
Into the loving arms
Of persecution,
Oppression,
Prosecution,
Imprisonment

Anything is better
Right?
America is freedom
Right?

Right?

What have we become?
Or have we always been?
What are we yet to become?
Manifest destiny
And no sympathies,
as wildfires burn
We celebrate with bloody trees,
We plow the Earth with “democracy”,
By upholding elsewhere
Tyrannical puppetry
What have we become?
Tear gasing the babies,
Just usually nimby* [not in my back yard]
And the cult of red hats bob in support
Is this being “great”?
Playing of all the worst moves “again”,
With scientific advances

Gerrymandered borders
Blur nationalist lines,
Never mind what’s behind the curtain
Right?
What worse could come? Right?

At least it’s not…

Like back then;
Like over there;
Like them;
At least it’s not

Me.

Right?