Movement Poem: “the tools that those frogs spoke about by the fire”

A member of the US Food Sovereignty Alliance’s Youth Collective authored this powerful poem we’d like to share with you. Efren writes:  “In a world where there seems to be infinite peoples reclaiming their rebel dignity, reclaiming their collective agency from a corrosive system, what I felt in writing this piece was that sense of grounding and capturing a convergence of people power in my communities back in California and the joy found in Florida those days.”

the tools that those frogs spoke about by the fire

cool pools form on victory
missing the wet steps i took
from my casita to the library
it’s a foggy feeling, but
the warmth from the pier by the pond
it was part of the healing

the snap back raised my head
chin up! this fight isn’t a bed
back and calm and partially better
only then did i realize the weather

one huge storm!
from street to street
from coast to coast
from sea to sea
from pole to pole
one huge storm!

while our methods to bare
might reappear invisibly
i recall that other feeling
that hasn’t fleeted
explaining why we made the effort
to come together in the first place

because

it really takes a heart for the land
to understand
that the resistance to the forces
before us
the ones who hate our guts
calls us ruts
deprives our dignity
lack of pity

have no chance
when the seeds we sow
food we cultivate
has our hands not pointed
but loosely gripped
to the tools that we made
for each other
passing them to one another

circling our
collective battles
we sit
humbled
their resiliency
our resistance
in joy!
in joy!!
in joy!!!