SALT - By: Maelle Heath

All around the world

There is

Slavery

Misogyny

Racism

Horrible conflicts that

Kill

Maim

Wilt the living and draw bloody scars on blank canvases

Long gashes into smooth marble.

What can you do about it?

They say,

Their

Confident

Mocking

Voice rippling through the auditorium,

YOU CAN:

Stand UP to the bully

(Even if you don’t know who they are)

YOU CAN:

MAKE your voice heard

(Even if it’s the leading cause of said bullying)

YOU CAN:

UNDERSTAND where they are coming from

(Even if you can never MAKE your voice heard long enough to ask)

They say,

Even if you are

SELECT ONE:

White

Black

Indigenous

Latinx/o/a

Asian

Mixed race

Even if you are

SELECT ONE:

Female

Male

Gender-neutral

Two-spirit

Transgender

Non-binary

Even if you are

SELECT ONE:

Straight

Bisexual

Asexual

Lesbian

Gay

You can still

Stand UP to the bully

You can still

MAKE your voice heard

You can still

UNDERSTAND where they are coming from

But what if

The very reason

You are

Stifled

Thrown away

Ignored

Is because of

Who you are?

What if SELECT ONE is the reason you are scared to go to school?

How you we speak UP

If we have no one to speak to?

How do we MAKE our voices heard

When no one will give us a microphone?

How do we UNDERSTAND where they are coming from

When everyone refuses to UNDERSTAND us?

How do little SELECT ONE children

Understand

“Smash the patriarchy!”

“Freedom for SELECT ONE!”

“It’s never too late to get your COVID-19 vaccine!”

We fill them with

“FEAR on the streets of New York!”

We tell them to

“WATCH your back for robbers on the metro!”

We scream

“SAFETY for your children can only be enforced humanely by the government!”

But we don’t understand

That the FEAR

Keeps our children

WATCHing their backs

Fearing for their SAFETY

Because of a headline

They saw

On your phone

The screen blinding

And because you are a SELECT ONE,

You can’t do anything

You can’t MAKE your voice heard

You can’t stand UP to the bully

You can’t UNDERSTAND where they are coming from

How hideously untrue.

We tell ourselves

That because we are

SELECT ONE

We cannot

MAKE (a difference)

We cannot

(Fly) UP

We cannot

(Hope to) UNDERSTAND

But we can only

MAKE

UP

UNDERSTAND

Because we are human

All of us

We all have

Brains

Intestines

Livers

Hearts

Lungs

NONE OF US ARE LACKING

But we can all UNDERSTAND

The need to MAKE a reason why

SELECT ONE

Is the reason “I can’t” fly

UP

You say,

“Someone else will do it for me”

In 1930

Gandhi staged the Salt March

Also known as the

Dandi March

Salt Satyagraha

Dandi Satyagraha

Against British oppressors

Who had put a monopoly on the mineral

(Which was speculated to be the official payment of the Romans,

1,549 years ago)

And outlawed the production, advertising and marketing of salt

From, to or

By the Indian people.

THIS IS A FACT

Gandhi walked

240 miles

To Dandi

(A city on the coast of the Arabian Sea)

He and his followers boiled water

Creating their own salt from their own land.

(If you are lost in the wilderness

Alone

Boil water before you drink it

Before you use it for your

SELECT ONE:

Soup

Gatorade

Salad

Drinking water)

Boil your own water

You don’t need someone to tell you

“You are SELECT ONE”

Create your own salt

Defy the law

The oppressors

The mad creators

Of mad laws

And mad regimes

As Martin Luther King, Jr. said

On April 10, 1960

At Spelman College,

Eager faces reflecting the light

Shining back up at him

Hope glowing through eager eyes

“If you can’t fly, then run,

If you can’t run, then walk,

If you can’t walk, then crawl,

But whatever you do,

You have to keep moving forward.”

TRUTH:

Stasis will not solve problems

After all,

No one can read your mind

No one can lift you UP

They don’t know how high a stool you need

No one can MAKE you happy

When they don’t know what’s feeding the pit of depression

No one can UNDERSTAND

If you never guide them

“Speak UP”

They say

As you ignore them

As your friends whisper

In some ways they are correct

But in too many they are wrong

They group you

Separate you

Even though they tell you

“We’re all equal here”

And you don’t believe them

You are not a SELECT ONE

You will never be categorized because no box

Can fit who you are

Because no box

Can hold your voice in a way that has any capacity to understand it

Modern society tells us

That boxes are what make us

SELECT ONE:

Beautiful

Smart

Sharp

A good person

But think about how much better we could be if

There wasn’t a law

On the salt?

Please give a detailed explanation about the meaning and main idea of this poem.

This poems shows the confusion and seeming uselessness of these reassurances, that we need as a people to take our futures into our own hands.

Please explain your writing and thought process regarding this poem.

I was frustrated and in the middle of a creative rut when I started researching Gandhi for school and happened along the story of the Salt March. I was intrigued and this is the product.

Why did you choose to write this poem?

To demonstrate my own feelings relating to this inequality.

Do you have any tips or anything to share with the youth writers who may be reading this?

Write proud and write bad. Every scribble is an art piece.