Rain Taxi 2025 Poem

Images of Democracy and Resistance

A community poem written by attendees of Rain Taxi’s Book Festival

November 8, 2025 — St Paul

• Webs of interrelation, it all comes down to paying attention
• Laughter, free food at my polling place, we shall overcome
• Don’t let conservatives own loud patriotism, union strong
• They’ve got the billboards, we’ve got the cardboard
• A kind face, reaching out a hand in love
• We’re stronger together, fuck the ones who tear us apart
• Love recklessly, fake facts face all the resistance of real love
• Connection and integrity, take action out of joy
• A brisk wind of resistance blows
• The polling place waiting to add their voices in an election
• Democracy is cool, Fascism drools, It’s the fight of our lives
• See Carmen Bugan’s Burying the Typewriter
• Is your typescript registered with the police?
• I wish to be able to speak freely, move freely, love freely
• Live freely. When?
• I’m tired of having to scream, the government fails
• The president lies, children starve, our taxes pay for genocide
• Guns rip through the schools, ICE through families
• When do people wake up? When do the people who claim
• My religion truly love their neighbors?
• I will keep yelling; I wish I did not have to
• What is a democracy in a land of lies
• That we now think is the truth?
• What is democracy, not in a land of immigrants
• But a country of refugees
• Exhausted by the pursuit, fruits of our labor
• Our names you mishear and mislabel
• What were you made for?
• We flock together, a new democracy under “her”
• A smile, to smile, a long pause when meeting
• Words or difference and seeking to understand
• Freedom to be me
• Make the choice of your heart, not because someone tells you to
• Democracy is a four-letter word in the ears of fascists
• A word like Love or Free, Mind or Guts- ours
• Or care, holy, or verbs: to be
• In such ugly times, the only true protest is beauty. -Phil Ochs
• More peace, less war, more compassion
• Scream louder, integrity is all we really have
• Democracy (Blank)
• I love America for its democracy, for its freedom
• That has yet to be realized
• The moon was red as a sour apple
• The pawns are learning to move backwards, backwards, backwards
• And the king is slow, what good is a window if the light can’t get in
• Love is the only thing that can turn an enemy into a friend
• Dizzying the blur of hate and pain, this timeline is exhausting
• Do not stop fighting, hope is the beacon we must protect
• A woman just by being a woman, a great unravelling
• I was not raised to treat people this way
• Neighbors are not enemies, I write from freedom and love
• In our future through compassion and understanding
• Hope for our future to be united in freedom, love and peace
• Fight against corruption and authoritarianism
• And he turned around, we shall prevail
• Resistance through community, the support
• Offering your hand and your voice
• That is democracy, is not capitalism, no sir, forget that
• Democracy is human and humane
• For the people and of the people
• We must resist or the night will be too long
• We must resist together, to stay strong
• Fighting for a world where we all can have a voice
• We must resist while we still have a choice
• It is for the world, that we and the world
• And the world will strive for us
• Snowflakes softly float, wild and free like the wind
• He said you are typing so long you are writing a novel
• No, I am breathing hope from the ground
• When I think of democracy, I think of that feeling
• I had as a kid, parched on a hot day
• And trying to scoop water to drink with my hands
• From the bathroom sink, the water would drain
• From my hands before I could get it into my mouth
• Every heart that regards the unhoused with a sneer
• Is a heart on the side of the oppressor
• A book a day keeps the ____ at bay
• Feed the sugar to the masses and they will always need more
• More spectacle, that’s what sells
• Served in Vietnam, repented and protested
• All these years later still need to protest
• Children are experts at creating community
• I grew up in northern Minnesota after World War II
• Women from other countries were called War Brides
• I “got” that they could teach us word meanings
• We never had special policies to arrest them!
• We did just fine to love our neighbor
• You thought the big red signs would somehow
• Subliminally garner votes for your right-wing no-locals
• To take over our school board. But you were wrong!
• We know our community and link arms with our neighbors
• To keep science and inclusivity alive!
• They thought they could starve us with our tough and soft bodies
• They did not know that we sprouted seeds and roots
• Standing tall, not compromising our ideals
• Who shot Dick Cheney?
• Picture a world where everybody got a chance to succeed
• Where everyone is worth the same, where everybody
• Has a place independent on where they come from
• I was a bouncer at Chuck E. Cheese
• Rose are red violets are blue, what’s for supper?
• Walking the streets without worry, families together in peace
• Submitting my ballot of choice, not fear
• Be the change you want to see
• Love is everywhere, you just have to look for it
• The baby drools
• All the necessity of bookstores, I’m an anti-Amazonist

Photos

Folks wrote lines on index cards that were typed onto pages to create a beautiful material artifact for the day.