Resilience is a woman
leading slaves through the night
with latticed lashes on their backs,
not letting fear hold them back,
never turning back
through malevolent forests,
carnivorous swamps
with the moon for a lamp
and a star as a guide,
with chants of ancestors in their ears
and the power of right on their side.
Resilience is a woman
on land stolen, people driven
through snow and starvation,
men hung, children taken─
fighting to save language and traditions
from obliteration,
through songs, paintings, poems,
drums, bells and words
to dance back the buffalo herds,
pass down dignity and creativity
to all future generations,
and for all the world to see.
Resilience is a woman
clawing through rubble,
searching for her children,
for food in gutters,
scraps for shelter,
letting nothing defeat her
or her people
whose name is a metaphor
for indefatigable,
whose defiance, forged in a crucible
of genocide and occupation
is a phoenix of inspiration
for all those who fight oppression.
Resilience is a woman,
tossing her headcover in a fire,
walking out on a bully and closing the door,
rising so we don’t have to live this way anymore.
Resilience is a woman….