We

When they came with chains,

The clouds fled and did not cover the sun’s retreat.

They built their walls, they drew their lines,

They wrote their rules on crooked signs.

We are multitudes against the few.

Darkness trembles in our light.

When rivers flood and crest the dam

We grab debris and rafts of flotsam

We refuse to drown alone

We pull other swimmers to us

On the shore we build fires, dry our clothes

Warm our bones and thumb our nose

We are a free-roaming, feral breed,

Not fatted hogs upon a killing floor.

We were not born to bear a chain

We are the storm, we bring the rain

2-17-25