a Found Poem from BBC News on International Day of the Elimination of Violence Against Women
They marched in Chile,
red hands painted across their mouths.
They covered their mouths
with purple hands in Argentina.
They dressed in black in Uruguay,
raised signs bearing murdered women’s names.
They placed red shoes on the ground
for all the victims in Belgium.
They hung stuffed animals in Honduras
from clotheslines memorializing the dead.
They laid under sheets in Panama,
toes tagged: soy tu novia, soy tu mama.
They wrote Stop 138 on spread palms in France
for the ones killed by their partners this year.
They lit up in a blaze of red lights
the Palazzo Madama in Italy.
They marched in Spain carrying crosses
for women killed by men who loved them.
They clashed in Turkey
with riot police, their batons and mace.
They chanted in Sudan:
freedom, peace, justice.
Andrena Zawinski’s poetry has received accolades for lyricism, form, spirituality, and social concern. Her latest book is Landings; others are Something About (PEN Oakland Award) and Traveling in Reflected Light (Kenneth Patchen Prize). She founded and runs the San Francisco Bay Area Women’s Poetry Salon and is Features Editor at PoetryMagazine.com. Her poem, “Unholy Triptych for the New Immigrants” appeared at The Revolution (Relaunch) in Summer 2019.
The Revolution (Relaunch) 