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.

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