RESISTING

It is Poetry Friday. Thank you to JG Annino for hosting over at Bookseedstudio. Today, I am starting with my poem draft.

RESISTING

When you resist dye fabric,

you paint wax over colors you want to keep,

coating precious designs

so that when the cloth is immersed in a darker color

some of the old hues remain.

When you remove the wax

the lines shine

bright, bold, undimmed.

I want to cover us in wax.

As the darkness seeps around us

I want to us to be the line

it cannot penetrate.

No matter how many layers of dye

they try to alter us with

I want us to stay our own, true selves.

We are a rainbow.

we are light refracted, reflected—

we are the living proof of a promise made

by and to our beloved dead.

What do we owe them—

the people who gave everything they had

to create the spaces

we could go to discover

our names?

The people who died

looking for them?

I have a pot on the stove.

I have all these half-burnt candles

from Days of Remembrance

and memorials

and vigils where we hoped, hoped

for a happy outcome.

I’m making wax today.

I intend

to resist.

~Sarah Grace Tuttle

There is something that everyone can do. I encourage you to work to protect the vulnerable among us. Please be a safe space for the trans and queer people in your life. And please, do not turn away from immigrants, migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees.

Trump has ordered the creation of a concentration camp, to hold 30,000 migrants at Guantanamo Bay. This is not hyperbole. Merriam-Webster defines concentration camp as: "a place where large numbers of people (such as prisoners of war, political prisoners, refugees, or the members of an ethnic or religious minority) are detained or confined under armed guard." So, let me say it again. Trump has ordered the creation of a concentration camp, to hold 30,000 migrants at Guantanamo Bay.

Resist. Call every elected official you can, and tell them to get in the way of ICE rounding up folks. Print and distribute these cards, and other Know Your Rights information sources, which are proven to help people protect themselves during ICE raids. When you read a news article about an organization taking Trump to court, donate to that organization to help fund their fight. Resist.

Do not let this moment pass by without action.

Do not let this moment dim you.