God’s ears that day

Are on a Chinese officer,

Who hears us,

rides over, sees our difficulty,

and solves it with a boat.

In the city of Sian

there’s safe haven

for us all. The children fall

into real beds,

and I fall into fever –

delirium

of terrifying journeys,

rockfalls, raging rivers,

dangers in the darkness

of the hidden moon.

Jan Dean

Sangharsh Karna Hai

here, the hurried truth:

day after day after day

of battling death and

keeping him at bay

you became the star

taking struggle in her stride

and we became the body

breaking free, we became

the scream cutting loose

from the curse of silence,

we became the protest

that poured like blood

from a wounded night

and learning from you,

we became the flesh

that became the fight.

Meena Kandasamy

All Around the Jailhouse

All around the jailhouse

Waiting for a trial;

One mile from the union hall

Sleeping in the jail.

I walked up to the policeman

To show him I had no fear;

He said, ‘If you’ve got money

I’ll see that you don’t stay here.’

‘I haven’t got a nickel,

Not a penny can I show.’

‘Lock her up in the cell,’ he said,

As he slammed the jailhouse door.

He let me out in July,

The month I dearly love;

The wide open spaces all around me,

The moon and stars above.

Everybody seems to want me,

Everybody but the scabs.

I’m on my way from the jailhouse,

I’m going back to the union hall.

Though my tent now is empty

My heart is full of joy;

I’m a mile away from the union hall,

Just a-waiting for a strike.

Ella May Wiggins

Locked Inside

She beats upon her bolted door,

With faint weak hands;

Drearily walks the narrow floor;

Sullenly sits, blank walls before;

Despairing stands.

Life calls her, Duty, Pleasure, Gain –

Her dreams respond;

But the blank daylights wax and wane,

Dull peace, sharp agony, slow pain –

No hope beyond.

Till she comes a thought! She lifts her head,

The world grows wide!

A voice – as if clear words were said –

‘Your door, O long imprisonéd,

Is locked inside!’

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

L’Envoi

Stepping onwards, oh, my comrades!

Marching fearless through the darkness,

Marching fearless through the prisons,

With the torch of freedom guiding!

See the face of each is glowing,

Gleaming with the love of freedom;

Gleaming with a selfless triumph,

In the cause of human progress!

Like the pilgrim in the valley,

Enemies may oft assail us,

Enemies may close around us,

Tyrants, hunger, horror, brute-force.

But the glorious dawn is breaking,

Freedom’s beauty sheds her radiance;

Freedom’s clarion call is sounding,

Rousing all the world to wisdom.

Emily Wilding Davison

December

Hope in jars, it lines the shelves.

We hug it close to warm ourselves.

It’s admirable to cling to hope –

protest, protect, go out and vote.

And when, in the morning light,

this hope of ours does not shine bright,