resistance is
fertile
Vol.
1 Iss. 5
Sept
2017
The Talent Arif Ahmad
4
Heath Brougher
6
Sissy Buckles
5
Matt Duggan
10
Catie Hajek
3
Chris Talbot-Heindl
7, 11
Ken Williams
8-9
Catie Hajek | Re: Pretty for a Black Girl | poetry I take the ‘black’ from my hair I take the ‘black’ from my tone I take the ‘black’ from the music on my phone And I am still reduced to ‘pretty for a black girl’ White boy says he likes black girls White boy says he can sing White boy says he’s blacker than me White boy rap White boy funk White boy soul White boy dreads White boy ‘fro White boy leave us alone White boy go back to your safe suburban home White boy bathe in your fresh, clean water White boy wash off the ‘black’ you tried on today White boy sleep easy White boy sweet dreams White boy we are still here We are still struggling We raise ourselves They raise the ceiling We throw stones and rocks and bricks They tie our hands behind our backs We hang our heads in defeat They cut them off at the neck What are we fighting for? What are we fighting towards? 100 years of violence? 100 more and we are slaves again They are putting us on the news like headstones They color us in chalk so we will look more like them They are martyring our sons And our brothers And our fathers And they are calling it ‘fear’ Call it as it is Call it violence as it is Call it a war where we are given nothing to fight with
But our rage Our Black rage And we will rage Like storms, we will rage We will tear this world apart And build it up again as something better As something softer We will build a place where we can prosper A place where black is safe A place where black is strong A place where black is beautiful
3
Arif Ahmad | Almost Equal | poetry
This game we were playing making faces at each other Except I was the only one to end up on the altar Turns out that with my name I should not have been playing this game And also that I was a shade too dark I tug on my freedoms before I write Please God, please In another life let me be blond, blue eyed and white
Sissy Buckles | I am not a gadget | poetry Waking up from recurrent dream right before dawn, my damn 4:00am internal clock and it’s way too early to get up so I move on the couch for another hopeful hour of rest, still darkness lights up suddenly the mushroom cloud of our collective nightmare flashing hot incandescent haze framed in blue neon lightning bolt once, then twice splashed against purple sky through partially opened dirty Venetian blinds my first thought “I’m going to die now,” and then, “No, we’re all going to die” slowly crawl to consciousness shake myself violently awake yet, still fearful. Need strong coffee and lots of it, on the morning news in between protest du jour and surf report is a story of a 1/2 man 1/2 machine making a movie about other cyborgs just like himself, his replacement computer eye glowing red seeing all relevant data displayed like Schwarzenegger’s in the ‘Terminator,’ if you wear a bluetooth in your ear you’ll implant a Google chip in your brain,
graft an iPhone with Instagram to your hand, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Russian helicopter pilots all heroes dying of radiation poisoning within three months after dropping cement 24/7 down the burning holes in atomic Chernobyl hell, and Thyroid abnormalities have now been confirmed among tens of thousands of children downwind from Fukushima after the complete core melt-down following the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011 while their government admits the recovery and decontamination effort could take years, and the storm debris now saturating California’s West Coast shores.
5
Heath Brougher | Regrowth of the Tumor | Poetry The tumor was lessened, held somewhat at bay during the last eight years, but now the echoes of Goldman Sachs are running rampant as ever throughout the corridors of the White House like the bile that runs through the veins of the man who called upon them. The tumor has begun a regrowth as deceit falls like Fascist hail upon the masses.
Chris Talbot-Heindl | Monument to a Monumental Jackass - The Weepy Nazi | Marker on Paper 7
Ken Williams | Again (Nuremberg’s Spawn) | poetry AGAIN, broken crosses—black on red symbolic black hearts of Satan’s children blood spilled by millions because madmen’s evil Satan’s stain standing tall Millions killed under this symbol of hate, race embellishment Blood and Soil heritage Listen… the camps wail, see them flood with cascades of tears children, grandparents, babies victims all, once AGAIN? How is this so how did it come to pass seventy years evil slumbered hiding behind fears of the “Other” fertilizing fields, sowing dragons teeth of Satan’s ideology AGAIN, NO camp residents scream Evil must be confronted wherever it exists, streets Internet, White House Resistance—our stand AGAIN NO, this time we stand white supremacy, Jew-baiting race hatred NEVER Fight before it becomes normal shame what is truly shameful confront it
AGAIN Swastikas, Confederate Flags Alt-right, white nationalism Nazism no middle ground no “Two sides to the story� AGAIN Evil, millions sent to camps millions died to defeat 101st at Normandy, Bastogne Marines in the Pacific, White Rose in Germany AGAIN The fight is upon us up to us AGAIN means never again our turn to confront evil or, play the Good German
9
Matt Duggan | The Man with the Parrot’s Head | Poetry Do not welcome that man with a Parrot’s head who wants to cement ethnicity — the wall divider who is building more enemies than friends; A fake tanned instrument that baths in the purity of manipulation as battles reunited — brutality and death fell… Baton Rouge Minnesota; Phoenix blowing flames in the homes of innocent faces, another millionaire an actor playing the role of president; a loose cannon Do not welcome… the man with a Parrot’s head.
Chris Talbot-Heindl | Squealing Like a Stuck Pig - Blue “Racism” | Marker on Paper 11
Resistance is Fertile The Talbot-Heindls, on top of being creative types, are also political animals who love the creativity and strength of the resistance movement. And we know that people have a lot to say about the current political climate. That’s why we created the compzine project Resistance is Fertile. Resistance is Fertile is a compzine for artists, poets, prose writers, or anyone else who has something to say about the current political resistance - fact or fiction.
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