Staceyann Chin

Come on now, Baby...

... we got work to do...

an itty bit of a quote from We spent the 4th of July in Bed
Suheir Hammad

So now
the smoke is clearing

we are coming to

realizing the bulidings are in broken pieces of steel
and bone and effort

it has been confirmed
the forces we have fought for decades
are powerful
and persuasive

the tragedies are numerous:

if another woman chooses to love me

I cannot yet marry her
my right to owning my body

stands compromised
wire hangers and kitchen tables lurk scalpel
behind these iron curtains ahead

there is talk of drilling in the arctic circle
(just in case we don't kill all who oppose us
in Iraq)

the Christian fundamentalists
are dancing in the streets

Islamic fundamentalists are doing the same
the war between these extremists
remains on course

Bibles/Guns/the Quran
hate
mistrust

joy at the profits to be mad
the blood that reminds us of martyrs
and crucifixions

dead
white
male
poets
we can refer to words written decades ago

the mercury sank in the mouth of the dying day

all the saints agree
the day of () death was a dark cold day

things fall apart
the center cannot hold
mere anarchy loose upon the world

where do we begin

with June Jordan

Sometimes, I am the terrorist I must disarm

with Audre Lorde
your silence will not protect you

will not protect your 2.5 children
your fence

your underfed body

Ruby Nell Sales tells me
we must begin dialogue with the women who voted for Bush

they have to know
he intends their bodies no good

Audre and Pat Parker
and June Jordan wrote pages of poems
essays
stories never no one wanted to tell

Audre and Cancer
her journals

her body ravaged by the crossing over
Nina Simone Sang
till her breath was no longer here

I will remember I have my voice
my body
my breath

I will remember
I am not alone

I will aligne myself with bodies
of like mind

and I will fold my rage into Haikus
and belt them sonnet
into the changing skies

I have arms
and legs

and promise and intent
I am alive

and that makes me able
and that my dear is the way

to start the new rebellion
in love
and the anticipation of the task ahead

Staceyann

Posted by staceyann at November 5, 2004 09:05 AM