Listen, you
who transformed your anguish
into healthy awareness,
put your voice
where your memory is.
You who swallowed
the afternoon dust,
defend everything you understand
with words.
You, if no one else,
will condemn with your tongue
the erosion each disappointment brings.
You, who saw the images
of disgust growing,
will understand how time
devours the destitute;
you, who gave yourself
your own commandments,
know better than anyone
why you turned your back
on your town’s toughest limits.
Don’t hush,
don’t throw away
the most persistent truth,
as our hard-headed brethren
sometimes do.
Remember well
what your life was like: cloudiness,
and slick mud
after a drizzle;
flimsy windows the wind
kept rattling
in winter, and that
unheated slab dwelling
where coldness crawled
up in your clothes.
Tell how you were able to come
to this point, to unbar
History’s doors
to see your early years,
your people, the others.
Name the way
rebellion’s calm spirit has served you,
and how you came
to unlearn the lessons
of that teacher,
your land’s omnipotent defiler.
Given the current situation around the world, this poem is extremely powerful and a great way of uniting people together to support the same cause. Recent protests around the world have been a retaliation from the unlawful murder of George Floyd, and people around the world continue to protest and fight in order to express their opinions on the death of Floyd. This poem is showing the importance of persistence and strength. Strength to go out every day and risk their own safety in order to fight for a good cause. This is evident when the poet writes
“Don’t hush,
don’t throw away
the most persistent truth,
as our hard-headed brethren
sometimes do.”
Another key message from the poem is to stand up for what you think is wrong. If you are someone who has seen something you don’t stand for, or even been a victim of it, you are urged to fight and protest.
“put your voice
where your memory is.”