During the last generation’s Western war on the Middle East, Chelsea Manning was incarcerated for disclosing secret documents that blew the whistle on US war crimes. She was incarcerated from 2010 until 2017 when President Obama commuted her sentence. She came out publicly as a transwoman on August 23rd, 2013. For the next twelve days, Z! wrote a poem a day to honor her courage in twice announcing powerful truths to the world.
August 23rd, 2013
Chelsea Manning
Transforming
The landscape
Of war
And secrets
Imprisoned
For courage.
Secrets
Of her war
Of her landscape
Transforming.
*
August 25th, 2013
Care Package
Enclosed:
Poems
flowers
sunshine
moon
lipstick: 5 shades
nail polish: 10 colors
concealer
eye liner
mascara
estrogen
a diary
wigs
2 bras
heels
dresses
sissters
scissors
a sledgehammer
*
August 27th, 2013
They laughed
at a hunger striker
in
CA
when he asked for his meds
cuz, ha,
he was
breaking the rules
breaking
chains
breaking
solitary.
At Fort
Leavenworth
she
was breaking
the boxes
asking for
hormones
they denied
she existed
on the mens
block
locked inside
body
inside
cage
getting
free.
*
August 29th, 2013
Gender
Identity
Disorder
=
Societal
Denial of
Gender Identity
=
The mask
so many have
worn
down the long
hallway
from
psychiatrist
to sunlight.
*
August 31st, 2013
Waiting
for congressional
oversight
one step
in a
direction
towards
reason
and increased
diplomacy
desperately
needed.
*
September 1st, 2013
You are not alone
we are not alone
we have always
been here.
Always.
At times
we have been
honored
simply
for being
who
we are
complex
and simple
crossing
boundaries
made up.
There
at the forefront
of stonewall
sparking
liberation
at the march
on washington
at both
wounded knees
disarming
Nukes
resisting
internment
there
helping catalyse
the DV
movement
then transforming the
DV/SA movement
we are here
coming out
undocumented and
unafraid.
Here changing the face
of queer liberation
We are here.
We are doctors
lawyers
teachers
we are
in the military.
We work at the store down the street
Dancers, singers, artists, bricklayers
We are everything
a kid wants to be
when
they
grow up.
And more.
*
August 24th, 2013
For Danni
There are
too many men
in womens prisons
too many women
in mens prisons
too many
that don’t fit
either
too many Black & Brown locked
away from home
too many
prisons
caging
this land.
*
August 26th, 2013
Dear
President
Obama
you have a chance
to honor
a national shero
and do right
to the snowdens, assanges, and
mannings
who are pruning
your executive branch
hedges
for you
and us
so we can see
more clearly
the true possibilities
of a nation
covered
in
sometimes
smothering cloaks
of hope for change
and truth.
Communte
to time
served
and your branch
still
gets away
with
her torture.
*
August 28th, 2013
I saw you
the other day
in the grocery store
pushing a cart
wearing a long flowing skirt.
You were looking down
reading a label
and your hair covered your face
but you pushed it back
behind your ear
and I could see your cheek
and eyes.
I saw you a few days ago,
you were
walking across the street
in the sun
laughing
holding hands with a
child
laughing.
You seemed so
free.
I saw you
just last night
on a date.
You were all
dressed up
a black dress
just the right
red lipstick
and nails
legs crossed,
glass of wine
dim lights
laughing
then sincere,
connecting
touching hands
across the table
naturally.
*
August 30th, 2013
Prayer
that something
stops
US intervention
in
Syria
and
civil war in
Syria
stops
to let children
grow,
like
lemon
lime and
olive
trees
in the wind,
adults to
live
full
lives
without
gas
bullets
and missiles.
More life
to live.
More
meze
kibbeh
hummus
shawarma.
More
Dabke
celebrating
birth and commitments
of love.
*
September 2nd, 2013
She
Chelsea
her
Chelsea
hers
Chelsea
Sometimes
it takes a lil
practice.
*
September 3rd, 2013
Assata Said:
if i know any thing at all,
it’s that a wall is just a wall
and nothing more at all.
It can be broken down.
Mumia Said:
“I spend my days
preparing for life,
not preparing for death…
They haven’t stopped me
from doing what I want
every day.
I believe in life,
I believe in freedom,
so my mind is not consumed
with death.
It’s with love,
life and those things.
In many ways,
on many days,
only my body is here,
because I am thinking
about what’s happening
around the world.”
Marilyn Buck Said:
later there was Assata’s freedom smile
then I was captured, locked into a cell of sewer water
spirit deflated. I survived, carried on, glad to be
like a weed, a wild red poppy,
rooted in life
Leonard Peltier Said (from Leavenworth):
Let who you are ring out and resonate
in every word and every deed.
Yes, become who you are…..
You are the message.
Z! HAUKENESS (they/them/their) grew up in rural Strum, WI, and lives in Louisville, KY (Shawnee Land). They are a somatics therapist, writer, akashic record’s reader, leadership coach, strategist, facilitator, ritual planner, and designer. They have published poems and articles on social movements, with more recent work incorporating spiritual and healing themes. They hold an MFA from Stonecoast at University of Southern Maine and are currently working on a biography about Carla Wallace.
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