Water Workers of the World—
I’m here to ask you to follow the lead of the women
restaurant owners who were the first to ask them to leave,
who refused to serve them, bread or butter, who came out
of the back rooms, where the chopping & kneading was
being done, and asked them to take their shiny mean spirits
Out the door, no need to compliment the eagles on their ties,
just follow the flying feet of the newspaper-reading basketball
champs who said No to the WH invitations or better yet, put
your mouth to the mouths of the magna cum laude graduates,
all with spirited terminal degrees in Mean What You Say and
Say What You Mean, O’ precious water workers, remove your
pearls and don’t follow Kanye into the desert to pray, and don’t
wait behind the velvet rope just to catch a glimpse of the henna-
hyena leader of the western world, a carnival always has clowns
in tow, trust your tenderness for truth, remembering the preciousness
Of water for every living thing, don’t whisper and wait behind
the parade of masquerades that choose politeness over courage,
accommodating the state visit of the grand wizened Liar, of all
time, is not in order, marching in step with the Governors of Alabama,
Mississippi, Georgia, and Missouri, is out of order, so pour forth,
Become flood, open your mouths and tell them to stop saying
this is about Jesus, remind them, in your own watery way, that
you know Jesus and he said he was never raped or asked to have
a baby he didn’t want to have, raise your big fingers into the big
air and follow your outrage into the arena, behind the cheer-
Leading poets and the afro-sheened quarterback, even though
he has been knee-locked out of the game he loves, still, he will
not throw the color-struck hyena a pass, just to stay in shape,
remember as you stand above the pristine tanks: outrage is not
a fragrance that can be made by people who pickaninny history,
Who try and pull the original face of freedom off of the woman
who escaped to be its creed and currency, outrage walks into the
room on stilts wearing red lipstick, with a water gauge stuck in her
back pocket to chart the rise, outrage does not leave when asked,
nicely, O’ Water Workers of the World, our dedicated work in
And around every 21st century water supply is essential to every
living thing, stand and pour forth whatever truth you can into every
existing tank and supply, replace the poison of silence and politeness,
follow the lead of the Black Princess herself, the new mother of the
tiny new curly redhead, hailing from the land of: I Will Not Go Along
To Get Along, refusing to welcome, to stand, nice and tight, in a royal
line, in the same room, in the same air, as the one who ordered children
into cages, proclaiming their one by one deaths on the floor, cold but
still wrapped in silver foil wrapping paper, his new world order.
– Nikky Finney