poem & manifesto for peace

this one is called 'Yahweh' - it is said like a sigh, and is said to be one of the closest forms to God's true name

I am a mountain
I am not a force of nature
I am simply a fact
until anger churns in my stomach
until rage clenches my gut
then I am a volcano

I am ash
a single fleck in the wind
I am not a storm
until my brothers and my sisters join me
then I am a torrent
and I might black out the sun

you may think you can disable me
but I am an aspen tree
my roots grow deep
and connect me to my kind
I am alive in all of them
I am a forest

this is my manifesto of peace. it's not quite a poem in my heart.

Yeah
I read the SCUM manifesto
when I'm angry
it makes me laugh
it grounds me and takes me to a world where the problems are simple
and so extreme, one-track solutions work

Yeah
I read Maya Angelou when I've fallen
I need hope and I will rise
I read Hughes to remind myself what I'm fighting for
not just women's rights
but human rights

the institutionalization of oppression must end
my voice is not a broken record
it is a mix tape of everything
glorious and free

do not tell me that ANY form of oppression is outdated
until they all are