#NotOkay

Last week, the #MeToo campaign, started a decade ago as a way to quietly but adamantly show solidarity with people who had been sexually harassed or assaulted, went viral and swept across social media. In this moment in time it became less a statement of individual solidarity and support and more of a statement of scope to everyone and support to everyone and solidarity with everyone. People, women and men alike, vocalized their experiences publicly. People with small and extensive experiences of harassment and assault were given a socially accepted opportunity to speak up where so many of us walk through life silent about these experiences.
When I added my own Me Too online, a friend and former student responded #notokay.

It was a simple statement, but it meant a lot. Many of our experiences go unnoticed or are silently accepted by others. It's time for us to speak up when we see people being jerks to each other, harming each other, harassing each other, assaulting each other, taking rights from each other...

Small and extensive experiences demand both small and extensive responses.

So, men, speak up. And women, speak up. And white people, speak up. And non-white people, speak up. And Christians, speak up. And everyone speak up. We all have the capacity to not be dicks and to say out loud to each other, "You may or may not be a bad person, but what you are doing right now is not okay." This is especially, especially, especially important when it is someone else who is being harmed (though, obviously, stand up for yourself as well).

End serious thoughts and conversations that have been revolving in my head and life this past week, and which led me to the poem below. I'm still writing a poem every day. Some of them are quite good, and I'm already thinking on compiling another book of poetry from them to publish next year. So I won't be publishing all the good ones here, because I don't want to mess up my future publication opportunities.

But this one. This one I had to share.

#NotOkay

Last night in a dream
I got to yell
     FUCK YOU, BILL COSBY!
at Bill Cosby
and others joined in
He slunk away in shame, or fear, or conflict avoidance
And the party organizers turned up the music
to drown us out
But we continued to shout
It was a very cathartic dream