No rules to follow, no laws to break: We woke!

’scuse me, ’scuse me, I butt in across the room
don’t know the rules here, but know
we were once from the same tribe
threads from tattered flags pull me towards you
float along the ocean that fools the eye with its expanse

we are salt
we are water
we are sand

pogroms and raids, marches and parades,
a border a Wall, we’ve seen them all
we stand for migrant justice
so toss ICE on the rocks—
their Kindertransport and roadblocks
families carry refugee heartache
no rules to follow, no laws to break

threads from tattered flags
Grimm tales stuffed in bags
Holding your child’s hand

we are salt
we are water
we are sand

no rules to follow, no laws to break
for now we woke and won’t let go, we are the embrace
and to you, your generations I am tethered
somos unidos
ale eyn mentshn

we are salt
we are water
we are sand,
we are one

Zigi Lowenberg, performance poet and co-leader of the jazzpoetry ensemble UpSurge!, has appeared at music festivals, rallies, clubs, bookstores and universities from NYC to New Orleans to San Francisco. Zigi’s acting credits include The Lysistrata Project, the Stein-Toklas Project, and John Brown’s Truth, an improvised musical. Zigi is a member of the National Writers Union, and Radical Poets Collective. Her poetry is published online in rabbit and rose, aadunanotes, Writers Resist, and Snapdragon. Her essay, “Support the Edge!” was published in a book Creative Lives. Zigi and her husband, Raymond Nat Turner, are executive producers on UpSurge!’s two independent CD recordings, which have garnered critical acclaim. Read other articles by Zigi.