I will not ask you not to cry
\nthough most of you will know that I
\nhave gone to Glory leaped into the light been embraced by Gaia
\nmoved on to my next body next level next planet next lesson
\nor become a small red puppy.<\/p>\n
Even when spirit still sings to spirit
\nwhen skin is parted from skin bodies must cry.<\/p>\n
I will hope that my writing friends survive me
\nand strangers, reading their fine elegies
\nwill think, “I wish I’d known her”
\nand feel a moment of regret.<\/p>\n
It would be nice
\nif all my books went into reprint
\nthe media published retrospectives of my life
\nand somebody famous wrote an unauthorized biography.<\/p>\n
I would like to imagine my friends
\nmarching on City Hall
\nshouting, “Her spirit is with us!”<\/p>\n
I would like
\nmy name on some small thing
\na shelter perhaps
\na scholarship
\nor an all-night coffeehouse with a library
\nwhere anyone can stay up all night and write.<\/p>\n
That someone might say, “She made a difference.”<\/p>\n
But most of all
\nI hope someone remembers putting up tents in the rain
\nmaking snow-angels on Mount Rainier in July
\nwatching all-night Dr. Who marathons and eating brownies
\nmy holding your hand all night when you almost died
\nyou sitting by my hospital bed when I didn’t know you were there
\nspeak fondly of how crotchety I got
\nor try to share jokes that only we two understood.<\/p>\n
The only thing that kept me here so long
\nwas the bond woven of moments and touches
\nover and over again
\nfrom one single heart to another.<\/p>\n
Please God I be remembered
\nfor many small things.<\/p>\n
We fight revolutions so that one child can laugh
\nwhile blowing dandelions.<\/p>\n
Written Wednesday 8\/15\/2001, after our homeless women’s organizing group held a memorial vigil for one more person found dead alone outside: Kathleen Bowman, 35, a suspected homicide.<\/em><\/p>\n I will not ask you not to cry though most of you will know that I have gone to Glory leaped into the light been embraced by Gaia moved on to my next body next level next planet next lesson or become a small red puppy. Even when spirit still sings to spirit when skin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,83,72,84,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems","category-spiritual-poems","category-wheel","category-women-in-black","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/anitra.net\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/anitra.net\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/anitra.net\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/anitra.net\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/anitra.net\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/anitra.net\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":631,"href":"http:\/\/anitra.net\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626\/revisions\/631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/anitra.net\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/anitra.net\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/anitra.net\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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