by coffeesp00ns

Tagging lil

I've been writing poetry lately. People I've shown have been positive enough with it for me to keep going with it. I spoke this poem at a poetry slam last Wednesday, and people liked it too. I hope you do as well.

This poem started off from a conversation I was having with someone about how much post-apocalyptic media has been written, made, and filmed. But, because of how I write, sort of stream-of-consciousness, it started there and then went somewhere else.

Tokyo Architects

   It’s easy to
   think about the apocalypse.
   
   Not just because of 
   “these days” or because we
   live in “interesting times.”
   
   It has always taken more
   energy to create than it has
   to destroy, to build
   the sand castle than to kick it
   down, to be the architects of
   Tokyo than to be Godzilla.
   
   It has always taken more
   energy to create than it has
   to destroy, because
   to create is to resist.
   
   We create bridges to ford
   the troubled waters of life, to
   make passage easier for those
   who come after us.
   we build dams and levees
   to hold back the oncoming storm,
   to keep those who cannot run
   safe against the tempers of Poseidon,
   and the sound and fury of the North Wind.
   
   We resist.
   
   and of course, any architect in Tokyo 
   will tell you that resisting
   an earthquake means being able
   to bend and sway like a forest of bamboo.
   Lithe, smoothly moving to and fro with
   adversity, but never losing its roots.
   
   and of course, any architect in Tokyo
   will tell you that being faced
   with a giant force of nature, like 
   Godzilla, or Mothra, or Rodan,
   means  watching everything you have
   worked for falling to pieces as you
   run for your life.
   Bricks, bullets, and tear gas in the air,
   riot shields SWAT teams, and
   militia in your rear view.
   
   Being an architect in Tokyo
   means seeing all of that horror,
   your friend being hit by a carelessly thrown car,
   and then waking up in the emergency shelter,
   putting on your best suit (a bit bloodstained),
   and starting again.
   
   It has always taken more
   energy to create than it has
   to destroy.
   To create is to resist,
   and to build up from nothing is to
   persist in the face of absolute destruction,
   a Tokyo downtown flattened by
   an angry, raging creature.
   
   We, like cockroaches, too tough to kill,
   like a supreme court judge too stubborn
   to die, will persist.
   
   and like Tokyo Architects,
   we will start again.

Dedicated to the Notorious RBG, Supreme Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg