Editor’s note: This poem is part of our #SpreadTheWord poem of the week series, featuring work by Chicago artists based on Injustice Watch reporting. This poem was inspired by a 2017 story by Jeanne Kuang, Will border wall stop illegal immigration? Not hardly, report says. For more poetry in this series, click here.
Glory Blankenship
She told me that growing up
Grief was a China Cabinet
Investigations that expose, influence and inform. Emailed directly to you.
And in her neighborhood
Everybody ate off plastic
Because it was safer for the children
And you couldn’t always trust guests
But after the dishes were washed and put away
Sometimes Mama would lay her hands on the
Red-stained wood once green with life
And a lone tear would float gentle like Moses
Toward the palace
A dangerous act of Faith and a small step
Toward Freedom.
Glory Blankenship is a community developer interested in cultivating collective resilience and hope through work, writing, and living as a true neighbor. She is the outreach coordinator for Purchased: Not for Sale in Shreveport, Louisiana, where she fights human trafficking and oppression on a daily basis.
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