by Jerrice J Baptiste
How Trump is Building a Violent, Shadowy Federal Police Force —ProPublica, October 18, 2025
Yesterday, the autumn wind almost blew
me away. If I were thirty pounds lighter
like I’ve always wanted, I would’ve joined
me away. If I were thirty pounds lighter
like I’ve always wanted, I would’ve joined
leaves in the lake. I savor figs, dried plums,
mango slices we share together in the royal
blue ceramic bowl, you gifted for my birthday
in April. And much time has passed and we need
to gather dried berries and nuts like our friends
the squirrels and rabbits. We will need to eat only
one of each roasted almond, white cashew, walnut
at a time. Under the crumpled sapphire-colored
blanket we will hide flat on our backs in the black
onyx night, in the cave we will build. Silence, Silence
and the goddess Artemis will protect us vulnerable
women and children. We will quickly hush, hush
like kindergarteners at play with shadow puppets when
adults enter a room. Whoever is searching won’t find
us, when their heavy boots enter our cave, their hands
shining light in each corner. Artemis will make us
invisible. Now the winds of autumn pick up speed.
It is a brewing noise of citizens, and leaves.
Can you hear what’s churning? Do you feel
the urgency of the people? The collective shouting,
shouting, shouting, and not just a handful. Let us
gather, gather our portions soon and build our caves.
Noise increases, increases loud firecrackers. Are you
the poets who are not afraid of the bombs?
Jerrice J Baptiste is a poet, educator and facilitator of poetry for healing and self-expression. Her new book of prose poems is titled Coral in the Diaspora published by Abode Press (August 2024). Her writing has been published and is forthcoming in The New Verse News, Artemis Journal, Urthona Buddhism and Art Magazine, The Dewdrop, Shambhala Times, The Yale Review, Wax Poetry & Art, Black Fox Literary Magazine, Mantis, Penumbra Literary & Art Journal, The Banyan Review, Kosmos Journal, Silver Birch Press, and many others. Her collaborative songwriting and poetry are featured on the Grammy-nominated album Many Hands Family Music for Haïti.
