5.17.2023 - Stand Up

5.17.2023
Stand Up

With my feet planted on the pavement and toes tense inside my shoes,
I look at them coming.
I root myself like an oak,
Mighty in my opposition.
My stance pure and eyes certain.
Around me, the crowd flows like a river.
And I the stone in the stream,
Am untouched by their turbulence.
What good does standing do?
To push and impact nothing?
To sweep arms wide and hold back nothing?
To hope and wish yet change nothing?
Is this solidarity,
Or am I another lost puppet,
Playing out my predetermined role,
Inside this habitus?
My intentions blunted and useless.
It’s not enough to stand here,
To fail to stem a tide much bigger than myself.
I am no David and society is not a pushover Goliath.
I am a person appalled at myself.
Ashamed of each microscopic blow I’ve struck.
It hardly matters if I was aware or not,
The pain and damage harm anyway.
My fellow humans are worn down,
Under the endless rasping of the file of Society.
The flood of people swirls around me,
Unseeing of my offer,
Or rejecting it?
This isn’t “my fight,”
But it should be everyone’s.
What do we become if we never stand up?
Complicit.
I widen my stance,
Shout my defiance,
And until I learn better ways to help,
I will start by standing up.