Counter-Inaugural Poem.

• Author: Love, Monifa A.
• Position: Poem

Small Change--Yet Not Despairing

(For Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore)

for many voices and drums

Performed at the Counter-Inaugural Protest in Tallahassee on January 20.

voice 1 small so small is that all? small change [repeat, alternating with small ... not at all ... small ... real change] voice 2 climbing climbing higher climbing climbing higher mountains climbing [repeat, as if Sisyphus] voice 3 What can I do? What will I do? Tell me. [repeat, whispering, with the hope the heart will answer] voice 4 Beloved grieving and aggrieved we who have lost the child of our dreaming for whom we have lived could live for whom we would die have died the child we named my own sweet freedom my own voice heard my own choice cast my own precious faith Beloved we know this loss we have held the murdered child in our arms before so many times before we have buried her and found ourselves desolate for a while empty-eyed and stumbling for a while jolted and wailing for a while molten and still for a while confused by those who went on living innocently living arrogantly living as if nothing monumental had been undone living as if they were not childless, too Beloved.... voice 5 here we breathe history we bathe in it plant in its soil here we are radioactive we hold the clumps of our hair the pieces of our minds and stare not believing in consequence Ah, Beloved.... voice 6 here it is a dusky field in summer made splendid by the brief light of countless fireflies voice 7 she says, clutching her id "i live each day in a constant state of anxiety wondering if today will be a day i pass for an american. i am an american." voice 8 you must...