Bloom from these Tombs
Channel: ArielleEstoria
Date: 2020-07-30

I wrote “Bloom from these tombs” in June, specifically on June 3rd. If you type in “June 3 protests” you will see article after article, video after video of thousands of people protesting and disrupting this harmful system we are all part of.

“Nationwide unrest and on going protest”
“5 things to know for June 3: Protests, coronavirus, elections…”
“June 3 George Floyd Protest news”
“Denver protests live: Updates from June 3 Demonstrations”
“Live Updates (June 3, 2020): Protestors March in Downtown”

After listening and reading and watching, I had to spill.
Watching the conversations range to how “disruptive” and “inconvenient” these protests were as if the death of so many was not disruptive in itself. I read as people criticized those fighting and righteously showing up for systemic change and justice and something in me snapped.

Some days, when I don’t have the courage or space to parade the streets with other wild and brave individuals, my hands march on a page and spill instead.

Here is the full poem:

May this pressure 
be the thing that breaks the system
be the fire that bends the injustice 
be the shovel that digs up 
the weeds in our society

You view this pressure as disruption, 
destruction 

but all along we have just been 
trying to build something worth standing on

all this time we have been attempting
to dig, toil, shift, uproot 
make room in the soil for us too to bloom 

Turn this cemetery into a garden again 
America is not great, she is sick 
There is poison in her lungs
The Black and Brown blood 
can no longer stay steeped in
Buried or hidden

Black people are dying 
Black bodies are crying
We cannot breathe 
America is suffocating 

May this pressure be an inhaler
may we exhale the waste 
Find life again in this place 
This is no country, this is a cemetery 

My prayers have turn morbid 
Only asking one thing, 
may something bloom from these tombs 

“Bloom from these Tombs” is also out on all streaming platforms.

Music and Production by: Fictitious Professor (Paul Kirz) @fictprof 
Animation and Drawings by: Jena Holiday @aspoonfuloffaith 
( thank you for hearing and seeing my vision and delivering beautifully) 💛