Resistilience

by Margery Parsons / April 26th, 2026

These trees are hardy, resilient:
Saguaro, Baobab and Welwitschia
can survive centuries
of heat, fire and drought.
Mangroves protect other trees,
whole shorelines from storms and salt.
Bearberry trees withstand high winds and snow
with a natural inner anti-freeze.
Aloe Vera soothes all kinds of creatures
with gel stored in its leaves.
Humans too are resilient,
have outlasted other species.
survived droughts and ice ages,
floods and plagues
with adaptability, creativity,
even genius─
painting masterpieces on walls of caves
when behemoths were still chasing us.
Now homo sapiens dominate the planet,
giant cities, world-wired technology
in a system ruled by money, profit.
Far too many of us
live in poverty, misery,
new forms of slavery,
forced to flee as refugees
or bombed and massacred in our own countries.
Now a genocidal fascist
with weapons of mass extinction
and his maniacal minions lord over us.
To survive this
will take more than resilience─
many more millions of us
must rise in resistance,
in the streets relentlessly
to drive out this fascist menace
till their dark ages cabal is history.
As we do we must ask ourselves
don’t we deserve better than this,
explore the theory and morality
of revolutionary possibilities
for a world where all humanity
not only survives but thrives
in a future worthy of the best in us.

Margery Parsons is a poet and advocate for a radically different and better world. She lives in Chicago and in addition to poetry loves music and film. Her poems have been published in Rag Blog, Poetry Pacific, Calliope, New Verse News, OccuPoetry, Rise Up Review, Haiku Universe, Madness Muse Press and Illinois Poetry Society, with a forthcoming poem in Plate of Pandemic. Read other articles by Margery.

This article was posted on Sunday, April 26th, 2026 at 8:00am and is filed under Poetry.