The Ones Who Move Forward

This poem was written by Jamerson Watson, co-founder and principal of Liberation in Action, and close friend of Resonance.

“I think I’ll run away with the ants and live on Mars.” — Nikki Giovanni

Sometimes the world feels like it’s moving backwards.
We get older. They get younger. We fall asleep. Buried treasure.
We see ourselves playing, childlike, but not wanting to be treated as such.
We run, but do not walk. We fly, but do not run. We crawl.
And we claw. And we cleave to something broken like grandmothers cleave to children,
But not to us.
We feel alien in our own skin because we’ve crossed streets, tracks, rivers, oceans, galaxies, space/time.
March is not a month, it’s a movement. A way to better reach what hovers above our heads.
We look up with eyes like Joy. We find out what we are really made of.
Bookstores carrying hardship like cops carry power, evermore.
Having had nothing stronger to offer than Pentecost, we do the math.
Innerchilds moving in sequence,
Rocking bell bottoms and moon boots,
Counting stars numbered like the sand of the sea that cannot be scored.
39. 70. 13. 20. 24.
We hold out daisies because they hold out gun barrels. Games. Sets. Matches.
The fire next time will bring forth the next ice age.
But, if the future is female, it must also be Black.
Birthing black holes, brown dwarfs, dark matter, and nebulae so bright they don’t exist to the naked eye.
Sometimes the world isn’t the kindest place to the ones who move forward.
Maybe next time we’ll try seeing what the landlord on Mars has to offer.

Inspired by Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project