riot of color
synchronized in one
collective act of protest
on stone steps of a locked
administration building
on a Saturday afternoon
wide-armed skirts open
petals as they spin
joy from low-hanging
smog of simmering
fear
uproar
an urban ballet
Tag: resistance
grace period
and the mass of a wait
sometimes it goes like this:
with should on one side, screaming
and on another, want––a solemn mass
bearing down until
one day, when the weight of it gives all
and then it’s time to hear the quiet part
now loud
body
of earth
power of bedrock
expanse of sea into sky
you will not be owned
though some try
still
crying seize, seize!
another day
Measure
What drifts
The raft’s rough edges where deep clings.
Raft sighing back, yes, oblivions, I see you,
kaleidoscopic leagues, teeming
with hidden lives.
You want ours, too? Is this an invitation
or a warning––or play? The way our youngest
are known to slap with open hands
your surface
just to feel
you resist.
To the Well
From the lighthouse.
––And then, an invitation. To reread certain silences in the context of a long tradition of expression among the artists whose work was protection. The practice demanded resistance of revelation, to cloak certain as-yet-unknowns in protective veils to keep them from the probing instruments and hungry hands of the doctors of discourse. Serious students of the art learn to absent themselves in certain company. Once fluent in silence, they can breach the perimeters of the well-trodden and overgrazed pastures in which they would be kept, to run wild through unsayable fields. Here is where the well of patience nurtures an impetuous and vibrant life in abiding resistance.