As I write this, you
are not even a glimmer in anyone's eye.
When you read this, I'll
be long gone.
Please, bear with my archaic words.
I mean, "mixed race?" We're all coffee and cream, right?
And, "lesbian?" No one stares or cares anymore.
But that's why I'm writing.
To remind you.
To remind you that we wiped out measles once . . .
and let it creep back.
We won our reproductive freedom . . .
and lost it bit by bit.
Hell, we were the free fucking world . . .
until we stopped paying attention.
Pay attention, child.
Pay attention.
You don't want to be fluent
in grandma's dead language.
A letter to a future descendant for Real Toads
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Friday, April 10, 2015
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About Me
- Maude Lynn
- Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days. ---Flannery O'Connor
25 comments:
This is one powerful kick-ass poem!!
Love the mood metre and flow of the lines!
Such an honor to know you Mama Zen :D
Love,
Sanaa
That's right! So good.
Kick ass it is indeed and great as always!
This is awesome, and timely, and strong.
Amen, sister.
Phenomenal poem!
I love this: "We're all coffee and cream, right?" And the closing.
Really well done.
.. this deserves a world-wide platform.
First - the title alone reached off the screen and made me deeply joyous......and the poem is a wonderment. I LOVE "we're all coffee and cream" because we are!!!! This poem is perfection, and a rallying cry to everyone to keep paying attention!!!!
My family pictures look like the UN and I'm happy its so. I've gotten to learn about all different sorts of cultures! Your poem is a cute yet very serious reminder not to take that for granted.
Goose-bumps...so powerful, MZ!!
Thank you for the challenge!
First, I adore this title. And second, well, there is so much... but I will leave to laziness (sometimes I do) and say that I wish I had thought of this wonder.
Wow! What a great wake up call for all us now! Great words!
Owooooo! From title to the ending! The future thanks you and the present too. I have tears in my eyes and a huge grin on my face.
Amen--that language is poisonous, and this poem is spot on.
Excellent in every way!
Gives me a chill. I get so sad to think of what is happening to women. Thanks. k.
Yes, what a message. Each day I fear more the turn this country is taking. We are losing the language of freedom.
Bravo, yes, we need to pay attention now~ I have a big smile on my face-thank you~
Nice telling it like it is, M Zee. I think it helped when some our leaders' kids turned out gay. Example, almost ultra conservative Dick Chenny.
I hadn't noticed a change of acceptance of "mixed" relationships. But then we have three of those in the kids and grandkids situations.
Neat last lines' advice, "... fluent in Grandma's dead language.
..
truth, MZ ~
I think paying attention is a way of deciding what to save and what to let go. If we don't pay attention, the decision gets made for us. Its hard to even imagine what a descendent might face or remember when in 50 years the oceans will be fast devouring the land and human knowledge will have grown a thousand million million times greater than the present sum. But if we pay attention we might still get there.
So true and important in so many, many ways - not just the ones you mention. I hope your mixed-race, lesbian great-great-great granddaughter never has to know about most of today's problems (apart from reading about them in history books and going 'what the h...?' the way we do about some of our history). This is a great write from more than one point of view!
packing a punch of reality and possibility, you're reading the signs of the times with that leap
much love...
Wonderful advice to all.
Thanks for visiting.
How'd I miss this one? It's a gem.
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