I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO REBELLION
I pay attention to revolts.
They clear the air.
They show
that not accepting what is
unacceptable is always possible.
Even a failed resistance
seems to me much nobler
than surrendering.
It’s not
a question of defeat or triumph.
Resisters rarely win,
but, win or lose, they stay
in mind.
They last.
After
his stroke my father would not
accept his condition.
Refusal
let him feel complete and still
in charge.
He died, refusing.
Emanuel Goldenberg retained
the G in his stage name
so that the world would know
that Edward G. Robinson
was proudly and defiantly a Jew.
Informed that his leukemia
was lethal, Edward Said
rebelled for eleven years
by authoring books he never
would have written otherwise…
Refusal arms us to contend
with issues grave or small.
They could be ultimate as death
or common as weeding a garden,
shoveling driveway snow
or shaving.
I leave all further
talk of consequence, rewards
or deeper meanings to the gods.
I only know that I feel
most myself when I say no
to what deserves a no
exactly when the no is needed.
To those obsessed with outcomes,
I suggest what matters first
and always is the choice‒ the stance.