Kaitlin Shetler

we may go quiet
for a minute
be bound by fear
or law
or cages
or marriage
or church
or government

censored
and silenced
exiled
and imprisoned
cowed
and shaken

but always
still
never not

human

#poemsfortheresistance #poetry #poetrycommunity #america #trump

next month may be hard
next year may be worse
you may lose money and housing and freedom and voting and rights and safety and life
but never dignity

because humanity isn’t given
conquered
dominated
tentative
flimsy

it is elemental

you are part of the path your descendants will walk to find peace
so don’t be too uneven

hope doesn’t always spring eternal
but it springs eventually

you will need to find joy
in hidden corners
a bird’s chirp
a sunflower
another breath
the way like calls to like as you make eye contact during national anthems

you will need an iron will, a silver tongue, and steel mind
courage for the fighters
compassion for the hiders
strategy for the rest

here’s what you’ll need to survive:
a strong stomach
a soft heart
a clear head
cunning eyes
sharp ears
a waiting patience
a careful body

I’m a real life human woman and my secret advice for men is to talk to us like we’re people

#poemsfortheresistance

If You Stand for Nothing Then What Will You Fall For?

You don’t get to opt out of the bad stuff if you’re going to claim to be a part of this group.

#deconstruction #deconversion #exvangelical #christianity #atheism

and we go to hell
with eyes closed
thinking we were keeping it away
all this time

#poemsfortheresistance #poetry #usa #trump #ice #immigration #humanrights

and like omelas
we thank the stars it’s happening to them
and not us
and like omelas
we accept the evil
to keep it from our doorstep
to keep our third graders in beds with stuffed rabbits

there’s a child
there are children
there’s a third grader
in a cage

and i thank the stars
that’s the reason
and not because she’s held hostage by a country who believes she’s less than human

and i beg forgiveness
that i am relieved
i beg forgiveness
and wonder if that makes me
just as bad

she’s lived nine years
she still believes in santa
she draws cats with wide eyes
and keeps her own eyes wide
she sneaks chocolate chips in her oatmeal
and still watches bluey
she cries because she’s worried about a standardized test

you can’t care about children
and incarcerate them
you can’t protect children
and disappear them

and wonder why my third grader goes to sleep in a bed
and their third graders go to sleep on concrete slabs in detention centers with foil blankets in freezing temps guarded by demons instead of humans
i don’t understand it
but i still hug my pillow

and as a mom
this is what i want for her
and as a mom
this is why i stay awake at night
what i’m hugging my pillow for
what i feel my heart flutter around
what my hands shake about
what my breath hitches behind

“if i were president,” she said the other day, “i would make sure everyone was nice”
and when i asked how
she said
“they’d have to be”

it’s her world
this unwavering faith in goodness
because her privilege is hope and a life where she doesn’t know differently

#poemsfortheresistance

my third grader went to sleep last night holding her stuffed rabbit and talking about minecraft

she tells me funny things about school
her friends play a game under a tree
she calls it “queen of the world”

and by the time you realize
delayed violence still hurts
the world as you knew it will be gone
but maybe ross and rachel
will still end up together

#poemsfortheresistance

all deaths are quiet
when ears are covered
all deaths are clean
when eyes are closed

it’s soft because you allow it
it’s gentle because you prefer it
the horrors are muted
when they don’t start with you

protecting oneself from the current horrors and future horrors even knowing that those horrors will probably still come
it’s preferring to choke on sand while your head is buried than on smoke while they burn you at the stake

it’s a hopelessness that turns to apathy
that turns to complicity
that turns to the capitol
a hunger games that starts to make sense
as long as it’s not your kid

it’s the silent death of empathy

it’s watching reruns of friends after primetimes on war crimes
working 9-5 because what else can you do when mortgage is due as innocents are snatched off streets and put into el salvadoran prisons

#poemsfortheresistance

this is a soft apocalypse
a gentle genocide
the slow boiling of values and decency
a southern politic at church potlucks and neighborhood lynchings

Among the material devastation to everyday people, Senate Dems have now blown a hole in their ability to work with the House.

We had an agreed upon plan, House took immense risk, then Senate turned around midway and destroyed it w/ a fear-based, inexplicable abdication.

They own what happens next.