Boats

Boats

A Poem by Marie Anzalone

I.

Don’t make a fuss, you say-

don’t disrupt anything

you are too young

and inexperienced

to understand. Whatever

you do, do not rock

any boats. Boats are meant

to be kept tied to shores,

and social studies teachers

should just carry more guns.

This has nothing to do

with the kids. It never did.

We will put a combat rifle

in the hands

of a poor 18-year-old kid

and tell her to die for

our economic freedom

to exploit whomever we want;

but a 15-year-old who watched

his classmates die in a pool

of blood in front of him

is just an actor. Even if he

tells the truth, he is after all

only a naïve rocker of boats.

 

II.

You would say, now is not

a good time to get angry.

Anger is bad. Blood and death

are too adult and uncomfortable,

anyway, for them

to think about. Shouldn’t they

be out shopping for a new

case for their iPhone?

You think they do not hear you,

but they do, they do.

They hear what you are not saying,

too. They should just sit down,

shut up, let someone else

do the thinking for them. They

should understand all we have

sacrificed for them,

and be grateful for the chance

to live in that place that is

never quite day yet not

exactly night. They should die,

if that is what their country

calls upon them to do today,

in-between standardized testing

and learning a little about STDs

and the dirtiness

of the human body.

 

III.

You ridicule their empathy.

You mock their pain.

You call their grief, unearned.

They, who sat by phones

and Facebook, waiting to hear

if their little sister, who they

forgot to hug goodbye this morning,

will make it out alive. The bullets

are coming through the walls,

she wrote. I am so scared.

They, who witnessed first hand

what they will never show you

on the news- those details.

What a high caliber round does

to a child’s liver at close range.

Trust me, they know what they

are talking about. They are not

delusional. They are angry.

With you. With me, too.

The answer you, say, is more

access to killing- it is not

listening to the kids.

Or their teachers.

 

IV.

There is dirty anger, that blames.

That discredits. That wants to wound,

revenge. Aggravate. That belittles.

That says, I will make you so sorry,

you ever crossed me. Ask them.

They can tell you who tomorrow

may call himself

an Avenger. Rock that boat. 

It would have drowned them anyway.

Our anger is clean,

they say. It is earned. It calls you

to action, it calls on us to all pay

a little more attention. It asks for

solutions. It does not ask why.

It lives side by side

with the vulnerable.

 

V.

In the US, they watch

their classmates and mentors die.

In Bolivia, they watch

their cultures die.

In Syria, they watch

their neighbors die.

In Afghanistan,

they watch their women die.

In Brazil, they watch

their ecosystems die.

Here, they watch

their hopes and neighborhoods,

die.

 

VI.

Worldwide, young people

just like them, are the ones

asking the questions,

we are afraid to. How much

does a high-caliber rifle cost

they ask, and why is it worth

more, than me? If you cannot

respect their questions, and be

part of the solutions they deserve,

then for Heaven’s sake,

get the hell out of their way.

You might call me naïve,

for listening to the young.

Yet I would point out,

at least they have something

worth listening to. Boats

were built to be sailed, and they

only show of what they are made,

when they are rocked. Our kids

do not want to sit still any more.

They do not want to shut up,

any longer. They certainly

do not want, any more, to die. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© 2018 Marie Anzalone


Author's Note

Marie Anzalone
In general, for youth everywhere who are ridiculed and discredited for standing and asking that we create that better world for them. Specifically, for the Parkland survivors who were derided last week by supposed adults when they asked for justice and change.

Artwork is my own.

My Review

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Featured Review

The frustration is felt here... the line, "How much does a high-caliber gun cost, they ask, and why is it worth more, than me?" really got to me. No matter what side anyone finds themselves on, we all at least need to agree that reform is necessary. More guns is not an effective solution. Brave write, I applaud you!

And the picture is a powerful addition to the overall message.

Posted 6 Years Ago


2 of 2 people found this review constructive.




Reviews

first of all, the art work is powerful in relationship to the poem. the poem itself echoes my own feelings, which live somewhere between disbelief and total outrage about how the victims are being portrayed by the right wing. these are kids whose world was ripped apart in the wake of high powered gunfire. if they, who have lost their innocence, who have lost their sense of security, who have lost the sense that adults and government are there to protect them, if they don't have the right to stand up and question and even demand change who does? yes, they are kids. but that doesn't give us the right to plug our ears and ignore them. i'm angry. i will follow these kids and encourage them in their fight to be defended. i wish more felt the same.

Posted 6 Years Ago


2 of 2 people found this review constructive.

The frustration is felt here... the line, "How much does a high-caliber gun cost, they ask, and why is it worth more, than me?" really got to me. No matter what side anyone finds themselves on, we all at least need to agree that reform is necessary. More guns is not an effective solution. Brave write, I applaud you!

And the picture is a powerful addition to the overall message.

Posted 6 Years Ago


2 of 2 people found this review constructive.

Every country has its own issue with weapons and the willingness of "bent" people to use them. Yet when only the government or criminals have access to weapons then what has changed? In nearly all the countries in this world THAT is already the case. Governments, civil organizations (rebels of EVERY class and stripe) and cartels execute at will - ANYONE they want to. And then there are BOMBS and sharp-edged thingies. Mind sets and an individual's lacking of moral character kill - using whatever is at hand. Work on teaching kids to accept individual responsibility, have a conscience, and understand what it means to have a sense of morality and perhaps then they will begin to effect a change in the future of our societies to where such activity becomes abhorrent rather than praised and glad-handed.

Where life ISN'T cheap - individuals have worth and MEAN something beyond to just their own family...

Posted 6 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.


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Compartment 114
Compartment 114

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Added on February 27, 2018
Last Updated on February 28, 2018

Author

Marie Anzalone
Marie Anzalone

Xecaracoj, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala



About
Bilingual (English and Spanish) poet, essayist, novelist, grant writer, editor, and technical writer working in Central America. "A poet's work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to ta.. more..

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