Poem of the Month: Democratic Womanism

DEMOCRATIC WOMANISM

Alice Walker

You ask me why I smile

 when you tell me you intend

 in the coming national elections

 to hold your nose

 and vote for the lesser of two evils.

 There are more than two evils out there,

 is one reason I smile.

 Another is that our old buddy Nostradamus

 comes to mind, with his fearful

 400 year old prophecy: that our world

 and theirs too

 (our "enemies" – lots of kids included there)

 will end (by nuclear nakba or holocaust)

 in our lifetime. Which makes the idea of elections

 and the billions of dollars wasted on them

 somewhat fatuous.

 A Southerner of Color,

 my people held the vote

 very dear

 while others, for centuries,

 merely appeared to play

 with it.

 One thing I can assure

 you of is this:

 I will never betray such pure hearts

 by voting for evil

 even if it were microscopic

 which, as you can see in any newscast

 no matter the slant,

 it is not.

 I want something else;

 a different system

 entirely.

 One not seen

 on this earth

 for thousands of years. If ever.

 Democratic Womanism.

 Notice how this word has "man" right in the middle of it?

 That’s one reason I like it. He is right there, front and center. But he is surrounded.

 I want to vote and work for a way of life

 that honors the feminine;

 a way that acknowledges

 the theft of the wisdom

 female and dark Mother leadership

 might have provided our spaceship

 all along.

 I am not thinking

 of a talking head

 kind of gal:

 happy to be mixing

 it up

 with the baddest

 bad boys

 on the planet

 her eyes a slit

 her mouth a zipper.

 No, I am speaking of true

 regime change.

 Where women rise

 to take their place

 en masse

 at the helm

 of earth’s frail and failing ship;

 where each thousand years

 of our silence

 is examined

 with regret,

 and the cruel manner in which our values

 of compassion and kindness

 have been ridiculed

 and suppressed

 brought to bear on the disaster

 of the present time.

 The past must be examined closely, I believe, before we can leave

 it there.

 I am thinking of Democratic, and, perhaps

 Socialist, Womanism.

 For who else knows so deeply

 how to share but Mothers

 and Grandmothers? Big sisters

 and Aunts?

 To love

 and adore

 both female and male?

 Not to mention those in between.

 To work at keeping

 the entire community

 fed, educated

 and safe?

 Democratic womanism,

 Democratic Socialist

 Womanism,

 would have as its icons

 such fierce warriors

 for good as

 Vandana Shiva

 Aung San Suu Kyi,

 Wangari Maathai

 Harriet Tubman

 Yoko Ono

 Frida Kahlo

 Angela Davis

 & Barbara Lee:

 With new ones always rising, wherever you look.

[This pretty much speaks for itself. Thanks to Meizhu Lui for submitting it.]