Lara Reyes-Terry, Week #5: No Kings
No Kings
Earlier this week, I dreamt that I went to the No Kings rally. It was very abstract---signs that paraphrased those I saw from photos, voices I heard from the news, and the sense of drowning in the clamoring of bodies. A smattering of skin toned paints over the American flag would be the most accurate feeling. This is mostly me trying to remember the details and taking heavy inspiration (and a quote) from a news report on the rally by MSNBC.
From the pit of the dark’s stomach,
Buried in a snow-laid bed in a nowhere suburbia
Acid sparks fire from light.
The marching commences,
Un-metronome movement—it’s messy,
Try shoving water in a single file line
It thrashes and dances
Hope drives it up, anger drives it further up the shore
Spirit moves and will move
Bodies.
Hearts heard the trembling trumpets calling.
The silence that followed,
How the flying flag slowed
And turned a deeper scarlet.
And the rhythm crawled all the way home
To the listening eyes and watchful ears
To join hands with the fabled bodies and voices
Speaking the same truth from tiny signs:
YOU CAN HAVE MY HATE FOR FREE
LOVING YOU COSTS LIVES
7 MILLION BODIES OOZING DOWN THE STREET
LIKE THE CARVINGS OF A RIVER
I AM NOT CRAZY
CRAZY IS CALLING THIS NORMAL
THE VETERAN LAID HIS LIFE AND LEG
FOR THE RIGHTS OF ANOTHER COUNTRY
“THERE’S NO WAY I’M BENDING
THE ONLY KNEE I HAVE LEFT
FOR A KING
HERE IN AMERICA.”
Flesh ghosts through me.
The march continues, glazing my vision
Fresh coat of paint over breath,
But it does not hide the irony.
It flatters him.
It fans the flames that gather at his feet,
Wretched royal portraits of slop the gasoline
We end where we begin:
A snow-laid house in a well known district
At the top of the torn heap
As a piece of over two hundred years of history
Are pulled from the seams,
Are we to put it back on the shelf incomplete?
Are you tone-deaf or apathetic?
As the rocks tumble, as the mobs reach the fire, the second the house has seen since 1814
Are you scared to let the public know you’re scared?
As the stench of fresh luxury hits you, you say:
No.
(They know anyways)
~~~
I hope you enjoyed it! Now that I read it back, it sounds like a nightmare lol.
MSNBC Report: https://youtu.be/Q1xQp9RhBAE?si=36KR6uWbZKu0qP-Z (full quote begins at 1:12)
Image: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/3307399721246647/
Where do I begin…there are so many lines in this poem I want to draw attention to.
ReplyDeleteArguably the most striking aspect of this poem, structure- and content-wise, is the capitalized, bolded portion conveying “the same truth from tiny signs” (18). Visually, the darkness of the text adds gravity and an ominous mood to the poem, grounding the reader in the severity of the United States’s political situation. The capitalization feels like a powerful bellowing of the people for their voice to be heard—a fairly realistic feature given the sheer ferocity of the No Kings protests. Two quotes are, to me, especially important in this section; for one, the chant “YOU CAN HAVE MY HATE FOR FREE / LOVING YOU COSTS LIVES” is an incredibly well-done use of contradicting words to portray irony (19-20). It testifies to an uncomfortable truth that you force the reader to confront: should we stay complicit and watch people suffer for it? Or should we feel intensely and act on it? You continue this theme of accountability really well with the quote from the veteran, reading “‘THERE’S NO WAY I’M BENDING / THE ONLY KNEE I HAVE LEFT / FOR A KING / HERE IN AMERICA’” (27-30). The veteran’s pure defiance, despite his physical disability, acts as a wake-up call for this poem’s readers, challenging them to speak up for themselves in the same way that he does for himself. There’s also an implication of disappointment, as the veteran watches the rights and freedoms he supposedly fought for be stripped away by “the enemy within.”
Finally, the ending stanzas: “Are you scared to let the public know you’re scared? / … // No. / (They know anyways)” (46, 48-49). This is a brilliant closer, and although I’m not entirely sure this was your intent, it makes me think that the poem is addressed to politicians and other people in positions of power who are too afraid to go against corruption for fear of retaliation. This is another challenge to them; you employ a deriding and critical tone against complicit politicians to make them understand that the people see them for who they are—sellouts. In a way, this can be an encouragement to stand up to the government, or it can simply be an ominous reminder that people can see right through their façade.
Either way, this is a very well-written poem. In times like these, political poetry always becomes bolder, braver, and ironically, much more free. Great job!
Lara, when I saw the title of your blog for the week I got so excited that someone was talking about this. The way that you presented your views on the No Kings Protests is so impactful and deep; your writing style is extremely admirable. You are right that it sounds a bit like a nightmare but I think that is a great way to also describe the reality of what is happening in our country right now. It truly is frightening that we are going backwards in our history yet there is so little being done about it. However, your description of the march itself shows how passionate the public is about this; the people in power may not be acknowledging the dire conditions we are in but the people’s power will not be erased. Your line of “CRAZY IS CALLING THIS NORMAL” really resonated with me because I find it astonishing that more people (specifically people our age) are not talking about this. The MSNBC quote about the veteran kneeling is one that I will not be forgetting anytime soon because it really encompasses the whole idea of us as a country fighting for so long to ensure freedom and democracy in our country just to be forced back into exactly what we started at; it feels like an endless cycle that we have found ourselves stuck in. I really enjoyed reading this blog; your tone and style brought so much weight to this already heavy subject.
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