"Hardness," A Poetry Post

Endure hardness
like a good soldier.

If you are struck,
rebound;
stretched?
recoil.

If you are slapped,
turn your cheek and be
slapped,
turn your cheek and be
vigilant.

If you are socked in the gut,
get up and expect your
protective reflex.

If you are pummeled
close-fisted,
shift, shift, shift,
and defend.

If this is not the end,
you must endure!

If you are knocked down,
buckled,
unwind and climb.
Adjust.

If you are squeezed breathless,
keep your lips pursed and
suck in tight with
all your might!

Restrained?
Never stop bucking and
looking for loose places,
weak spots,
little bits of give.

Pressed to the ground from
head to foot?
Wiggle your pinky finger and toe to
keep your blood
flowing.

If you have breath,
you live! and
if you have blood,
you live!

If you must be alive,
and you must,
and you must make progress,
and you must,
then you must suffer and
suffer well.

Wear your stripes like a brand.
Woman or a man, be a man.
Stand up when you fall.
Take a stand.

Be hard.
And perspire.

-T. D. James-Moss

"Brackish," A Poetry Post

It's all mixed in.

Lead in Flint's water.
Bodies in New Orleans' streets.
Drugs in Irvington,
Drugs and guns
everywhere.

Bodies filing out into
Chicago's streets in
human chains and
violent clashes.

Brackish, isn't it?
Bitter and bloodied,
salty and polluted,
murky,
dark and
flush with political
garbage.

Garbage in the well.
Garbage in the company room.
Garbage in the public space.
Trash.

The whole world's watching,
watching us
dipping in a cup and
drinking,
drinking from the sewage.

Drinking what we would not offer
to others...

Drinking what we would not allow
in other countries...

Up rises fresh water,
gushing from a spring
deep down in the ground from a
source we all remember.

"Flush out your hatred."
"Flush out your foolishness."
"Flush out your division."

Overcome the pollution.

Up from what we know.
We know to assemble.
We know to command respect.
We know our humanity.

Run down here now,
into the sludge you've dropped here.

Wade up to your waist and chest.

Let's work out the filtering in the
way we all remember.

We will take your trash and
throw it back
throw it back
throw it back.

We will take your trash and
throw it back.

We will regain our
freshwater.

-T. D. James-Moss