Let It Rise

Jefferson quote.jpeg

I wrote this poem on December 3, 2014, and it’s telling that I can’t remember which particular injustice perpetrated against someone Black in America inspired it. I have lots more like it over the years. Most of my poems feel like they mark a moment in time, and when I re-visit them, they bring that moment back to life for me, but they also serve to mark the progress either by me personally or by the world at large in the intervening time since it was written. Sadly, this one feels like the present moment, every single time I read it.

Let it RISE
up from the pit of your stomach
where you been kicked
too many times
feel that bitter taste at the back of your throat
uvula bathed in rage
holler out
names, slogans, or just
ignite lighter fluid or
lie down
or wail
we deserve
we need
wailing

Let it RISE
from the depths of our collective soul
no fucking kumbaya, we are one, bullshit
but weaving back together
the unraveled spiritual stitches that bind us
like it or not
we are a fractured people
but we ultimately share
one fate
make peace with it
or rage against it
or ignore it
it matters not
now

Let it RISE
from places you don't even remember
ancestors you never knew
experiences you don't need to have
to feel
until you
can't breathe
until you
taste your own blood and bile
lose your bowels
plead for your fucking life
if that's what it takes to believe
then do it

Let it RISE
love
that's right -- LOVE
no fucking kumbaya, let's all get along, love
but love that rips off the bandage fast to make it hurt less
love that puts a system that's dying
out of its misery
love that has you throw your body in front of a bullet
to protect another
love that knows when to say
NO
love that can resurrect the
spirit of those who would
kill and feel nothing
those who would
watch and say nothing
love that knows better

Let it RISE
Let it RISE
Let it RISE

the inevitable
has begun.

Note on image quote: There is no shortage of irony in the fact that Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, and yet spoke these very words of resistance. This is the cognitive dissonance our nation has been built upon, and that we still struggle with today.

Monica Anna Day