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poet.
performer. activist. teacher.
STANDING
Written
for the "Stop The War on Women: Repeal The Global
Gag Rule" Rally, Capitol Building, Harrisburg,
PA, November 4, 2002
All around the world the cloth has come down:
Over my face, my sisters' faces;
In between my teeth, my sisters' teeth;
Around my wrists, my sisters' wrists;
Around my ankles, my sisters' ankles.
The
cloth has come down as a shroud
as though we were all only that close to dying,
as though my eyes and mouth and tongue and throat and
feet
were only all that close to dying,
as though my body, choosing its own birthings,
was only that close to dying.
You
can lay your claim to me,
to my body's moon and spark,
my blood birthing children I would choose not to subject
to a world undoing,
where choices are forced upon me and my sisters
as though god was only a man inside of any one of us,
instead of the spirit in the breath
that continues to keep us speaking out.
You
can pull that cloth tight between my teeth
to silence my voices speaking,
to silence all of my sisters' voices speaking,
but my eyes, in the silence, are still speaking.
You can pull that shroud cloth down over my eyes,
hide their voices, too, while the voices working in
my throat
are visibly calling whisper over gag,
but my legs are still holding me,
my hands are still calling, and
my feet, bound or unbound, are still rooting me.
You can cover me to the toes, make me apparition
of colored cloth not of my own making,
knock me to the ground to be sure that I am not standing,
but I am breathing still.
And my sisters are breathing still,
and I can hear their breath, and my breath,
and as long as we are still breathing out in this silence,
we are standing.
The
breath is voice enough.
As long as I am living, my sisters are living.
Even if I am here laying on the ground
covered by your cloth,
bound by your gag,
eyes and throat and body and hand and feet and spirit
hidden,
somewhere else there is a woman speaking out.
In one part of the world, they have unbound voices.
In another part, they have their eyes speaking,
and in the other, they have their hands speaking to
the work before us,
and elsewhere they have their legs to carry them
and their feet to root them
and their spines to bear the burdens of us all,
and we are all breathing,
together.
Every
one of us,
with whatever tool we are offered,
are calling out and speaking out
across this cloth of your silence.
We
are calling out.
We are calling you out.
Did
you hear me?
Listen.
I
am breathing.
So is she.
And that one, too.
Breathing,
and standing.
And the blood of me and of my sisters,
beneath the breath,
is the pulse of magic,
untethered.
© Dora E. McQuaid 2002
final version will be available in "Horses Overhead"
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Dora
is available for readings, speaking dates, and workshops
on writing, creativity, and/or performance.
To discuss bookings with Dora, or to order books or cd's, please contact her at:
575.613.2947
doramcquaid@doramcquaid.com
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