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1990 Crawls To Me Singing Don’t You Ever Let It Be*

Kristia Vasiloff

You may sling hail
Leave bruise marks
the size of four letter
words - find me scooping
those bruises out like jello
eat all that pain, say
Bring It On.

You may burrow chiggers
under my skin, laugh as I
can no longer stand to look
at myself -
Find me shedding like a snake
Lay my carcass around me
Hold it up like a flag.

You may pour out my glass bowl
until I am dizzy in my own air
belly up in attempt to flip
Find me growing arms,
stepping out,
keeping onward.

I will do what is my blood
I will crawl myself onto capitol hill
Legs useless & painting that
white marble red
I will scream as each elbow
makes contact with edges
unforeseen: the only
way now is up.

I am a horror, pyrrhic,
a two-wheeler in a chariot
I’ll say I Won, You Bastards
I’ll speak my own legs into existence
I will eat every document that tears me down
Crawling into 2023 as I reach the top
of this shitty capitol, with your laws
chewed up and ground to dust
in my bloody wake.

 

*On March, 12, 1990 more than a thousand protestors came to Washington, DC to protest for the passage of the Americans with Disability Act. When the protestors reached the Capitol, more than 60 protestors bravely abandoned their crutches, mobility aids, wheelchairs, and anything that helped them to move, to crawl up the stairs of the Capitol. To this day, us in the disability community celebrate the “Capitol Crawl Protest” as one of the main reasons why ADA was passed in July of 1990.

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