For my Students, Now Poets

Raise your voices, please

Please raise your voices

If you would only

Would only Speak Louder

LOUDER!

Be heard Be heard Be heard Be heard

I’m scared I’m scared I’m scared I’m scared

You say you’re scared

I’m scared

So you whisper

You whisper whispered voices whispered

Your words always whispered so soft…

Someone might hear you

Someone might hear your whispers

And listen to your words and that someone

Might smile at your words

Might read those words those Lakota words

Those proud native words

Grass words and sky words

Animal words and ancestor words

Someone might read those words

And smile to know those words are still breathing

Those words are still living

You are still living.

You could make them smile.

Someone else

Someone else

Might hear your whispers

Whispers whispered voices

and be sad for you

They might cry for you

They might see in your words those gravestones you carry

Those graven images on your binder

On your t-shirts

Those gravestones that you carry

Covered in crosses and rhinestones

Those gravestones dragging, pulling, holding

Your hurt could drown hearts made of granite

You could make them cry with your words.

Someone else

Someone else might hear your whispered words

and get mad

Might hear your oppressed words

Inarticulate words without opportunities

Words that want more but don’t know how

Don’t know how because no one taught them how

And someone might read those wanting words

And it might make them want something more

For you

It might make them mad

It might make them want something more

To do something more

For you

To articulate your words

To give them opportunities

To teach you those words.

They will want to reach you

They will want to teach you those words

They might hear your whispers and get mad

Raise your voices, please

Please raise your voices

If you would only

Would only Speak Louder

LOUDER!

Be heard Be heard Be heard Be heard

Make them smile

Make them hope

Make them cry

Make them mad

Make them want

Teach them

Reach them

With your loud voices Loud voices

Spoken Words

Spoken Loudly

Because it’s hard to hear whispers