by Indran Amirthanayagam
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| March for Our Lives |
Keep screaming. I will, Sister. Keep screaming.
I will, Dearest. Keep screaming. The children
will not be forgotten. Keep screaming. The guns
will be stopped, bullets intercepted. With our minds.
Our pens. Here, Senator, is our petition. Here you go
the draft legislation. Don't worry. Take your time
to read every word. We are staying here until
you decide to vote for or against. Not beyond
this line. Not any more. Never again. Not anywhere
in this America. We are not murderers. We are not
going to take the fall for the military industrial
profiteers. We are not going to be quiet. We are
not going to play dead; allow the demon to destroy
what's left of the Dream. Not for Martin. Not for
Malcolm. Not for Ginsburg. Not for John Lewis.
Not for you or me. I was a wretch. We were all
wretches standing on the street while the murderer
walked into the school unopposed on May 24th, 2022.
Keep screaming: Never again. Ban the filibuster.
Never again. Institute background checks,
psychological evaluations. Damn the idiot
argument of arming the teacher and the guardian,
He walked in unopposed. He killed nineteen
children and two teachers. Keep screaming.
Indran Amirthanayagam's newest book is Ten Thousand Steps Against the Tyrant (BroadstoneBooks). Recently published is Blue Window (Ventana Azul), translated by Jennifer Rathbun.(Dialogos Books). In 2020, Indran produced a “world" record by publishing three new poetry books written in three languages: The Migrant States (Hanging Loose Press, New York), Sur l'île nostalgique (L’Harmattan, Paris) and Lírica a tiempo (Mesa Redonda, Lima). He writes in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Haitian Creole and has twenty poetry books as well as a music album Rankont Dout. He edits The Beltway Poetry Quarterly and helps curate Ablucionistas. He won the Paterson Prize and received fellowships from The Foundation for the Contemporary Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, US/Mexico Fund For Culture, and the MacDowell Colony. He hosts the Poetry Channel on YouTube and publishes poetry books with Sara Cahill Marron at Beltway Editions.