American Bison are commonly known as the American Buffalo And are the national mammal of the United States These grand beasts have evolved to adapt to the harsh North American Great Plains winters They have vast biological adaptations to allow them to thrive in the volatile environment They evolved physically optimized to survive Yet their most fascinating adaptation is behavioral Unlike nearly every other wild and domestic creature Buffalo do not flee from the sweeping brutal storms that cross the landscape They put down their massive heads and turn into the maelstrom They meet the fury and ferocity eye to eye They seem to inherently understand The only way out is through Resisting the sky is futile The sooner the storm is met The less time it has to intensify The sooner they can emerge from its dangers No wonder indigenous people hold them sacred To meet the fury of nature unflinchingly Steadfast and secure in the innate knowing Passed down through generations That buffalo are built to endure Creating their own harmony with their world Writing their own survival rules Wise teachers for us all
The great social experiment The revolutionary idea That we, the People, could form A more perfect Union Failed to uphold justice Protect domestic tranquility Provide for the common defense Abandoned the general welfare Incinerated the Blessings of Liberty For ourselves and our Posterity Two hundred and forty-eight years Was a good run, I suppose The hope to be governed by the people For the people For every eligible voice To enjoy the opportunity to be heard Was willfully eclipsed by the shadow of Kakistocratic - Technocratic - Plutocratic - White supremacist - Christian nationalist - Fascism Have we answered the question Whether societies of men Are really capable or not, Of establishing good government From reflection and choice Or have we proved They are destined to depend, For their political constitutions, On accident and force Or, dare I add, willful ignorance And deliberate, egotistical self-absorbance The fifty stars and thirteen stripes hang upside down In the hearts of the concerned citizenry While chaos, fear and greed reign unchecked Over the land that was never to have a sovereign With days cacophonous and nights despairingly bleak There is light from the resistance Those who risk to speak To share To shine light Onto the truth of the grift of the century Those who take serious their vow to uphold the Constitution Those who believe we hold these truths to be self-evident That all PEOPLE are created equal That they are endowed with certain unalienable Rights That among these are Life, Liberty, And the pursuit of Happiness Those people who do what they are able To take a stand however they can Because they hold fast to the American Dream And the dream of a better America Oh say does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave Where we yearn to be free And we're tired of being brave
This is hard shit. That sometimes grabbing that fact by the throat and screaming in its face is necessary from time to time. Sometimes sitting in the shadow of that truth is required when our spirits are tired and our hearts so broken. And when we're done, we rest. We breathe. And we rise and fight some more. Because we're mothers.
Women! Do not center your lives around men Pleasing Appeasing We are not the prey for their predator Though some argue nature made it so
We are Medusa's progeny Serving oleander sweet tea And Aqua Tofana cocktails We carry the legacies of Lilith Hecate and the Morrigan Skywoman and Diana of the Hunt In our bones
We are born with cunning woven into our shadows Placed there by the midwives and wise-women Kitchen witches and herbalists Shaman and priestesses Who came before us
We have our own form of politics Whispered around washing wells and sewing circles Book clubs and coffee tables We don our poison rings and hat pins Let them think our docility safe While we keenly observe and note and remember
It is time to end the war waged upon our bodies The raping of our spirit The subjugation of our gender We are the gateway of life We break ourselves open through blood and pain To do the Goddess's work of creation
Too long have we allowed the world to think us Weak Helpless Foolish Simple Incapable We must remind the world of our strength
Boudicca was beaten and her daughters raped And in her rage she waged war against Rome Joan d'Arc stood against the English and the Church A God-touched, heretic, peasant child whose heart would not burn Harriet Tubman survived the travesties of slavery Another God-touched woman who delivered 70 other souls to freedom And we know there are so many more like them
Though we may not find our names etched in history We are no less powerful than those who are Our lives are OUR CHOICE We are not chattel nor trophies We are creation gifted autonomy It is our divine right to wield our lives as we see fit
Let them vilify us as Succubi Mad women Uppity bitches And cunts
We know we are Goddesses Priestesses Witches And warriors
We are exhausted We are fed up We are wrathful The Divine Feminine rises The world is set ablaze around us But we are not tied to the pyre We choose to look the world dead in the eye And dance while it burns
Birthing a new world is painful Shifting a paradigm is tectonic
Daughters, We do not just choose The Bear We are The Bear We are the Wild Mother We are gifted with the power of creation We are skilled in navigating grief We are aligned with the cycles of life
Daughters, We are the builders of community We are the storytellers We are the lore keepers We are the heart and the hearth We are the fire keepers We are the fire
On this ordinary October day I did my part to change the world In a most extraordinary way I voted For who I hope will be Our first woman president With proud ancestors at my back My children’s future cast before me I released my grain of sand into the glass To do my small part to move us forward Towards a future the mothers preceding me Could only hope to dream of For their progeny
For every one of you who were denied the opportunity I will vote For every one of you who survived as an act of resistance I will vote For every one of you who dreamed of freedom I will vote For every one of you who died hearing “less than” in your ears I will vote For every one of you who had family ripped forever from your arms I will vote For every one of you who became strange fruit on a dark night I will vote For every one of you who had no say over your body I will vote For every one of you beaten, intimidated, or humiliated I will vote For every one of you who birthed unwanted children I will vote For every one of you who risked death and the law for a choice I will vote For every one of you who were victimized without justice I will vote For every one of you who dared to dream one of your decedents could be president I will vote For every one of you who endured so that I can be here in this moment I will vote
Words Wishes and Wisdom 