Remember to swing your arms as empire crumbles

A poem today followed by my favorite meme this month. Darkness and light belong together. We belong together. Loss and grief teach that. Pain held by community teaches that. Chronic illnesses teach us that together. Wise women and all smiling, weeping, sensitive elders teach us that. It's one thing to know it in our heads (that's adulthood). It's a whole other thing to embody it (hello elderhood). If you don't like advice within poetry, skip all lines in italics. If you don't like poetry, skip to the meme at the end. But don't give up on all poetry. That's like giving up on all music, all dancing, or all listening to trees and watching sunsets...

Remember to swing your arms as empire crumbles

Just got the first shingles shot
so I'm sitting here
swinging my arm in a coffee shop
trying to write poetry
six months in [shit, now I'm crying
that was fast]
six months into
debilitating chronic fatigue
thanks to long Co, Cov, Covid, Covidtry
reading
that Hegseth's military
killed kids & elders again today
with impunity
& plans to live stream
the execution of a man in a wheelchair
by firing squad–
to teach us what, exactly?
That nobody's children deserve childhoods?
That none of us matter?
That crime doesn't pay?
The fuck it doesn't.
Crime friends and family run this USA.
Their ICE goons beat, murder, disappear us
with sickening delight– by us I mean
anyone who doesn't look right
doesn't think right
doesn't love right
[how DARE you love your neighbors!
MAGA "Christians" scream]
didn't vote right
far right
salivating-cruelty right
chanting "U! S! A!" while the crowd beats a woman
for wearing the wrong t-shirt to a rally
while great leader informs them
without information
that she's just another paid protestor
deserving of all pain given–right–
and they've disappeared more than a few
who did everything "right"
twisted faces into monster masks
bodies into silicone or armor
performing unspeakable tasks.
No body is safe
from demented fascist cult rule.

When it hurts
swing your arms
side to side, like you're a rag doll
then up and down:
learn to swing your arms
well before it hurts
to minimize the pain you know is coming.
All whole-body dancing counts.

Done with the news
now I'm listening sideways
to old women at the next table
devising plans to
better advocate
work together
get people to the polls
get laws changed (Woot!) and to
never again listen to, or work for, men
[Wow! And these are 70- and 80-year-old
women. Not inclined to hide their plans:
not caring at all who hears them.]

On my other side sit two small kids
snacking on seasonal scones
sitting in sunbeams
swinging their feet
in overstuffed leather chairs
quietly watching Beauty and the Beast
with closed captioning on the wall
(women clearly own and run this shop)
while their young dad
slowly sips his drink
breathes deeply
rests his good-parent-weary eyes
beside them.

Feel that change.
That's not a question.
Feel it. Do it.
Leave the house. Seek it out.
Watch for it. Notice it.
So much is changing for the better here
rapidly now.

We can feel & see
the world changing here.
Feel, see it
everywhere.
And.
In the heart
of crumbling empire
every lovely moment also knows
that the violence doesn't stop
until we stop, until we all stop it.
Systemic violence spreads, pools below, then thickens
from the couldn't-care-less-
about-life-and-humanity
top.

Luckily life herself isn't top down.
Life's side by side
and from the inside out
and everywhere. So.
Move. Notice. Act to address
the violence within. Simply talking to each other
listening without judging for a while
face to face
replaces anger with love.
And.
Allow your rage to stay. Allow rage to simmer.
Especially if you're a woman or nonbinary being
or one of the extraordinary men
who's done the daily hard work
of sharing feelings and not agreeing to be
neutered of all emotional intelligence
our connection to the earth and to each other
and free will, along with it
by the patriarchy. But I digress...

Think of all the books we've read
the shows and news we've seen
the stories kept hidden, shared by women
about slavery here and elsewhere
men thrilled to treat neighbors as cattle and
women as disposable wind-up jerk-off & maid-service machines
think of books we've read
shows we've seen
the stories held and shared by those who survived
about living in Berlin
at the heart of Nazi reign
death & hiding everywhere
every last breath & movement straight jacketed
by abuse-hungry, blood-hungry, power-hungry
death-hungry men.
These disconnected men are still so fucking hungry
that eating the whole world isn't enough.

Think about the millions of women
online right now
sharing their stories of rape.
Sharing their rage and their plans– once believed to be
individual. Now we know better. Think about
all the families sharing daily live footage
within genocide zones. Ignored by mainstream "news."
Realize that we aren't
at the beginning of fascist rule.
Some of us are a decade in
many of us are a century or more in—
as always, it depends on who
you listen to.

Swing your arms
listen well to historians:
fascists never get more
than 14 years in power
when people organize
and several years less when people take
immediate action.
We are 11 years into this truly fascist (cult)
U.S. regime
according to historians.

What do we do
as this empire crumbles?

We swing our arms.
Change. Take one big new action.
Here's mine:
tell the truth
all the time
out loud when possible and
especially when I'm scared to.
Do it scared. We must do things scared now.
That's our inoculation: choosing
to do things scared. Which is just: learning
that we're far braver and more powerful
than we were groomed to realize.
We still live. We still love. We love more now.
We sit in sunbeams. Thank birds. Suck marrow
from moments of stillness and play.
Fewer and fewer hide from the truth now so
we deepen relationships
strengthen community, ensure that
sensitive, unique beings are loved and welcome
baggage, tone, and all.
So they don't become fascist now too.
I mean, so we don't.
So we won't, together.

Some slow way down
seek to shed global, cross-gen violence
from ourselves and others
so violence & abuse
can't spread unchecked here. It's brave
to be yourself & center non-violence.
Some do the opposite
prepare for courtroom fights
direct action
de-flock flock surveillance camera nights (October 31)
publishing names, addresses, & faces of agents
& rapists who face zero justice from the Dept of "Justice"
It's glorious to witness so many women
getting each others' rapists outed & fired now.
And some are learning to street fight
ridiculously well-funded, well-armed
government & random lonely rogue men out here
itching for more blame, more
kicking those who are down
more wildly un-fair fights
more stripping away rights
more death-bringing panels, camps, & nights.
It's also brave to fight fascists.
Just don't do it alone.
Connected beings are brave.
Celebrate & deepen your connections.
Fighting, and kicking, and screaming while always
always, always feeling utterly alone?
That's sad. That's fascist.

We still have to live.
We have to eat. We have to rest.
We have to breathe and play and recover.
Raise children to thrive in a stunningly uncertain world.
And if you believe we're all connected, then these things
matter even more now. Because not everyone
gets to eat and rest and heal anymore.
Families in Gaza risk their lives daily
for flour. Families in ICE detention
are fed maggot-infested food,
dirty water, sexual assault,
and disappearing entirely: no grave,
no country, & family left with open, unsealing,
unthinkable
wounds.

So swing your arms as empire crumbles.
Take deeper, intentional breaths.
Take deeper breaths in the street.
Swing your arms as you walk.
Add taking deeper breaths
to some routine actions: like while
brushing your teeth or as
you sit on the toilet.
[that last one is also a long Covid
recovery tip]. ;-)
Do whatever it takes to
refill your soul in moments & inoculate
against feeling deflated
defeated, before the fight
even pounds on your door
or drags you and your neighbors
from your cars.

Fight, flight, beFriend, even fawn when you must
are all still great:
just don't freeze.
Never sit so still that you can't feel
your neck and shoulders or the pain of your neighbors.
Swing your arms & know
that the crumbling end of empire is never the end
of love or closeness or community or music or dancing
or governance by loving, land-centered
child-centered people.
We're never defeated.
As it turns out love is larger & smarter & faster than the plague:
that's why the anti-empathy, anti-emotion folks are always angry
always draining their own energy, from within.

Swing your arms to love yourself exactly as you are.
Follow the energy to find those who help you
love yourself as you are. As matriarchy rises.
Which is just all land-centered, children-centered
connection-centered beings being well-loved & listened to again.
While patriarchy steps visibly onto the global stage
crumbling under its own weight
putting itself in front of a firing squad on live TV
alone & repeatedly pulling its own limp & drunken trigger
because people the world over are DONE with them.