Story
Fit To Be Tied
the disCOurse features writers sharing their lived experiences and their perspectives on the past with an eye toward informing our present. In this poem and accompanying performance, Stephen Brackett explores the knots—and nots—that can entangle us when we attempt to fly.
I am tired of braided abrasions
Of ligature mark calligraphy
Tagged across nations
Equations of diasporic spread reduced to
Folklore and dogwhistles
I am impatient with hatred
I’m patient with how it bothers you
I know the hemp forget me knots have
Produced produce from relatives
I know you you know the pain it calls
And I know you don't get it
Does my clarity induce jealousy
But it is so easy to put words in each other's mouths without discussing the puppet strings
Why does pulling on the thread of trauma make the nots stronger
Justice isn't just a class
To makes the blows softer
But trading blows is the currency
That we all were offered
The more we struggle
The more we tighten the knots so
Hang on
I’m hung up on how we're strung up
How do we undo the nots and put a bow to alter all of what was done before
Some have-nots are nooses some have-nots are fruits
Some have-nots are on the gallows saying they could never be juiced
Claiming I could never ever be hung out to dry
While getting hitched as sure syrup’s sweetness can cut you when it's crystallized
And skin will spill its sorrow
When it’s abused doesn't matter how it's described
Through all of the lies
Soon the truth will inhabit the skies
Have you noticed the smell of smoke suddenly
The aroma, the cologne of collapsing colonies
The trouble of troubled waters and furrowed brows
Deconsecrated sacred ground
Tearful apologies
For by-proxy atrocities
Leaving your history mythology
Making my lineage laundry
On line to be separated sanitized scoured suspended and sundrenched
Your line has fairytales of erasure the tourniquet becomes clenched
So tight like a fist it becomes us
So tight is the grip that it numbs us
So tight that our eardrums might rip
From the pressure
So swift is the release is feels almost like pleasure
And the scriptures we seek
Are knives we keep to sever
A cord and battle scars that we lie about
How bravely we stood in the lion's mouth
Put our hands against the tide
On the matters of our lives
We didn't run and hide
And find an out
We confronted the other side
I am one of the good ones
We tried
We tried we tried
But it was not enough
With a knot up in our guts
That keeps us on the ground when we need to stand up.
See more compelling videos from the Rainbow Militia in The Colorado Magazine, including a belly dance and an original song. It’s all part of History Colorado’s This Is What Democracy Looks Like initiative.
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