AGAINST ALL ADVOCACY

 

AGAINST ALL ADVOCACY

a voice for the voiceless they say

to explain what they think of as

their high calling

but I know the voiceless are not

voiceless so what is this then

this new but not that new

advocacy but the stealing of limelight

a kind of distortion

no one is voiceless; so what is your game

what is your racket, hmm?

do you want to

interpose yourself between the sun

and their shadows to say to them

your voice is thin you need me

but the voiceless so called

do not want a megaphone

do not want to leave behind a statistical record

do not want a script to read from

do not want to be featured in a news article

where the core of the story is how the voiced

gave them their voice

because this cannot be

this is a lie that your voice can substitute

for the voiceless who truly had a voice all the time

who rose with gestures every morning

and cupped the sun in their hands

and wept their categories out

their voice out until it became a sea

a seashell murmuring known only to God

for whom you would also provide a voice

that is only

a shell a sound stage

if it were possible

where only you are heard

advocating and advocating

organizing starlight

while the willows sing without you

in their willow language

to their secret their myriad and jeweled selves

and always have

mary angela douglas 3 february 2024

We have anyway an advocate in Christ Jesus. Be a friend, be kind, be personal. Dont be an advocate. It is too grandiose. And too take one and pass it down mimeographed as to strategies. And often laden outright sometimes with emotional and psycholoogical manipulation of those who are being "served'.