<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div>Poem With Statues Falling</div><div><br></div><div>It was the summer we took</div><div>heads, toppled statues of despots</div><div><br></div><div>& slaveholders off their gleaming</div><div>plinths; elsewhere, tipped them</div><div><br></div><div>into the oily depths of rivers.</div><div>It was the summer we gave thanks</div><div><br></div><div>for the thousand-thousand bodies</div><div>marching in the hearts of grieving,</div><div><br></div><div>inflamed cities — how they brought</div><div>brave songs & chants, paint &</div><div><br></div><div>chalk, words & light to project</div><div>the hopes which we must bind</div><div><br></div><div>together so we become our own</div><div>living, breathing monuments.</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- <span style="color: rgb(50, 51, 51);">Luisa A. Igloria</span></div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>( <span style="caret-color: rgb(50, 51, 51); color: rgb(50, 51, 51);">Luisa A. Igloria</span> is Poet laureate of <span style="color: rgb(50, 51, 51);">Virginia</span>)</div><div><br></div></div></div></body></html>