Inalienable Rights, Native Wrongs #idle no more

We are not caricatures
or objects.
To be seen as things
inhuman.
We are not here to
serve as toys.
Or to fall with your
foot to our neck.
We are daughters of
our Creator.
Warriors in our own
right.
Clothed in the
noble cloak of womanhood.
Bonded with He who created
us all.
Through us, mankind
comes to mortality.
We weave the fragile thread
that holds the present and the future.
It is upon our breasts
kings, chiefs and rulers are nurtured.
It is by our hand the artist
and the ploughman thrive.
It was through our lifeblood
the campfires burned.
We are not objects
To be defiled.
You cannot cast us off
and throw us away.
Our women are not to be
stolen and sold.
Traded and soiled
in the darkness of your filth.
We are created by a greater hand than yours.
The law fails to protect our mothers, our daughters
our sisters, your wives.
We are like that petal in the morning dew
left unsheltered to be trampled beneath injustice.
Where are the voices to rise until
the darkness falls away?
Where are the hands to return
our young women to the homes now empty?
Who will claim their bodies if
they are found at all?
You stand in the halls of justice
and you throw up your soft hands.
You stand in our communities
with your hands hanging down.

We wait for the hand that rights the wrong.
We wait for the hand that is truly strong.
We wait for the heart to sing our battle song.
We fight to be as our Creator intended us to be.
And you sit and find fault with me?

Let his Spirit give you eyes that you may finally see.
Our soul belongs to eternity--now set us free.
Violence against us should never be.
©taw gko ah aw-gyah.