ISSN: 1941-4137
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
Traniesa “TC” Caldwell has been a performance poet for 14 years. Her pronouns are she/they. TC is the founder of CoffeeHouse Poets. CoffeeHouse Poets has been around for 10 years. She is also a member of The Knights & Orchids Society (TKO). TKO is a southern centered grassroots movement founded and led by black, queer, transgender, and gender nonconforming people. TC uses performance art as a vehicle for activism and community work. Her work is dedicated to community, mental health, HIV awareness, and visibility.
You have the right to remain silent
but if you do, they gone keep killing yo’ babies
Your people
Our people
We are in a crisis
This is more than an altar call
Keep praying
but our folks are still dying
We lift our hands in worship
They lift their hands in hopes of not getting shot
… in hopes of not becoming another hashtag
… in hopes of not becoming a poorly written facebook status eulogy
… in hopes of not becoming martyrs for movements that don’t move
unless dead bodies push them
You have the right to remain silent
but these bodies loud though
They don’t have academic language for their pain
You say oppression
They say everyday life
You say gentrification
They say where I use to live
Pass the collection plate to the left
and hold the right accountable
Our people are being used as leverage
Hold both sides accountable
Our people are living check to check
Hold your government accountable
We turn our eyes to media lynchings without flinching
Normalizing pain and forgetting that you don’t need a rope to hang from a system that views you as strange fruit
You don’t need a rope to hang in a system built like a cat’s cradle
That you, your parents, and grandparents are still trying to get out or avoid
Hold yourself accountable
Tired of counting bodies instead of wealth
Tired of prisons being used as public housing
Tired of black and brown youth being used as poker chips
to buy into a game, we will never win
Tired of dirty water
Tired of mental health conversations that don’t include us
Tired of neighborhoods disappearing for the “greater good.”
Tired of normalizing murder
Tired of my people hurting
We are in a crisis
We are more Lazarus than David
Lord if you would have just come sooner
No time to be weeping Marys
Our ancestors are calling us to fight
Our people are calling us to fight
You have the right to remain silent …
But why would you?
Glass: A Journal of Poetry is published monthly by Glass Poetry Press.
All contents © the author.
All contents © the author.
