Once Again at Nonviolence Training, 2017
By Tess Taylor
Because the white supremacists are coming
because the threat
because Charlottesville
& if you don't who will
& you never know what baton what chemical
we are marching.
We plan chants.
Make signs at church.
Large assembly: bodies, linoleum, soup.
Cardboard & markers & salt fog drifting.
We bear forward our fury and sorrow.
Estuary sanctuary room for our hope lights.
HATE IS TOXIC TO ALL LIVING CREATURES.
Shalom, salaam. We root our anger.
Are alive together.
Must now be shields to one another.
& John said: Be a witness.
We brace one another. Plant our feet.
In fog, promise
to stay together.
We will not raise our hands. We are not leaving.
Copyright Credit: Tess Taylor, "Once Again at Nonviolence Training, 2017" from Rift Zone. Copyright © 2020 by Tess Taylor. Reprinted by permission of Red Hen Press.
Source: Rift Zone (Red Hen Press, 2020)