Crude Awakening, A Black Snake In 2016 Poem by Renee Marie

Answering the call to support
Direct Actions in silence
is the art of a Servant-Witness
I wentprepared to be shot.

Water Protectors rallied from around the globe as
Standing Rock, North Dakota Lakota and Sioux
leaders tried to decolonize our fantastical indoctrination and false privilege
First Nations' Sovereignty is stained with capitalistic colonialism.

The phone number for Legal Defense was written on our right legs
If I was arrested or made unconscious on "The Line" of Non-Violent Actions
by rubber bullets, pepper spray, sonic weaponry, Shepherd attack or baton blows
someone would discover who to call.

Nights I sleptwere frigid in the Veterans For Peace WWII Army tent
November snows and wind slammed uneven drifts against brittle canvas flaps
Thanksgiving meal was served in a geodesic dome donated by Burning Man
and Jane Fonda.

In December, over 4,000 fresh Veterans would arrive to ask for forgiveness
offering themselves as human shields facing militarized police
profiting from ancestral oppression of Indigenous people
reduced to tokens of tolerance.

First Nation burial grounds and water rights were rendered to the highest bidder
bloodied treaties broken over and over and so
in the presence of The Chief
I could only bow my head, close my eyes, rest my hand over my heart in
apologetic silence a Servant-Witness to the White Mans'
pious manifest-destiny.

The day I left Camp Oceti Sakowin I came upon The Flag
flying in distress.