The Hill We Climb

“Erasure demands a lifetime of rehearsal. Do you really understand what it is to be this disposable body. We recognize the sobs now for the flags they were. The jerk of our heads, as if waking from a dream–or a nightmare. You decide. This is not the nation we built, at most not the nation we've known. Know. Oh, no. This is the nation we've sewn. It is our right to weep for the wound we've always been. A silent shock out of the blue: a hand hung to another or a head pillowed by a shoulder is by far worth more than anything we've won or wanted. When told we can't make a difference, we'll still make a sound.”


“Last year we stepped onto an elevator.
We politely asked the white lady behind us
If she could please take the next lift
To continue social distancing.
Her face flared up like a cross in the night.
Are you kidding me? she yelled,
Like we'd just declared
Elevators for us only
Or Yous must enter from the back
Or No yous or dogs allowed
Or We have the right to refuse
Humanity to anyone

Why it's so perturbing for privileged groups to follow
restrictions of place & person-hood.
Doing so means for once wearing the chains their power
has shackled on the rest of us.

It is to surrender the one difference that kept them separate & thus superior.

Meanwhile, for generations we've stayed home, [segre] gated,
kept out of parks,
kept out of playgrounds,
kept out of pools,
kept out of public spaces,
kept out of outside spaces,
kept out of outer space,
kept out of movie theaters,
kept out of malls,
kept out of restrooms,
kept out of restaurants,
kept out of taxis,
kept out of buses,
kept out of beaches,
kept out of ballot boxes,
kept out of office,
kept out of the army,
kept out of the hospitals,
kept out of hotels,
kept out of clubs,
kept out of jobs,
kept out of schools,
kept out of sports,
kept out of streets,
kept out of water,
kept out of land,
kept out of
kept in
kept from
kept behind
kept below
kept down
kept without life.

Some were asked to walk a fraction / of our exclusion for a year & it almost destroyed all they thought they were. Yet here we are. Still walking, still kept. To be kept to the edges of existence is the inheritance of the marginalized.”

― Amanda Gorman, Call Us What We Carry