Resistance is not wearing a pink hat
or marching with a million people 
or speaking your dreams 
hoping to tame wild beasts.
That’s solidarity, and it won’t work.

Resistance is not trusting love
as the enemy nails beams together.
It is not honesty before Pilate. 
It is not true to Self.
Truth is for Jesus, aching to die.

Resistance is silence as you speak lies.
It is saying yes to Christian neighbors
and doing what you can
as you work, as you wait.
It is letting proud boys believe they've won
and their women, that you've found home 
as you sow faith and community –
beautiful vines that slowly grow
inch by inch, season by season,
year by year.

Then, then…

when need’s grip snaps grieving sons
and senseless tears, forgotten daughters;
when bereft and lost they reach for 
friend, family, husband, wife;
when only hope shields pain
and you stand firmly between 
the question and its adjured answer:
then, then remove your mask, 
then and only then let it slowly slip 
from your always-enraged face —
show them your ageless hate
just once, lonely soldier,
so that as they sink
their departing view

is you.

*