Poems of Resistance, Power & Resilience – Keisha-Gaye Anderson

As the incoming administration builds its agenda of attack on marginalized people, on freedom of speech, on the earth itself, poetry will continue to be an essential voice of resistance. Poets will speak out in solidarity, united against hatred, systemic oppression, and violence and for justice, beauty, and community.

                

In this spirit, Split This Rock is offering its blog as a Virtual Open Mic. For the rest of this frightening month, January of 2017, we invite you to send us poems of resistance, power, and resilience.

We will post every poem we receive unless it is offensive (containing language that is derogatory toward marginalized groups, that belittles, uses hurtful stereotypes, explicitly condones or implies a call for violence, etc.). After the Virtual Open Mic closes, we hope to print out and mail all of the poems to the White House.

For guidelines on how to submit poems for this call, visit the Call for Poems of Resistance, Power & Resilience blog post. 

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The Day After: 2016 Presidential Election

by Keisha-Gaye Anderson

After this day
you will not make a
fetish
of what you call my
"poverty"—
the stable you built
for me
to walk in circles
servicing machines
that push food down
your bottomless gullet

We are done dancing on
your stage
we will no longer compress
the fire of our stars,
netted in flight
diverted down into dirt
to illuminate
the cave
that is your mind

We are
to redeem you
but, only if you let go of
skin
rejoin a journey of
knowing
admit that you are blind
out of tune
sleep walking
insane

and we will take you back
recalibrate the crooked parts

Or, you can dissolve down here,
fodder
for the next idea
spun by the mind
whose night terror
unfortunately

took on your face

Makes me no difference
we were never a part of this
race

to nowhere

And soon,
we are going

home