think of honey

I really love this poem, but also, I don't know, it definitely feels like a good one for today (this week, this month, this year, this decade).

Should the years continue to press
As they press now, and in their pressing,
Press the sugar from my skin, let
The stone that forms inside me
Be amber.

Should there be aching, then,
For sweetness, should they
Come looking and find me, let them
Find in me this rock, and not
My bitter carapace. This rock,
And think of honey, stored away
For safe-keeping.

Tomorrow, who knows?

Should the sun burn out,
As it plans to do, and as it burns,
Burn down all the trees, let
My shadow be a cool thing,
Reaching out to shade you.

—Mendi Lewis Obadike, "Protest Poem," from Rainbow Darkness: An Anthology Of African American Poetry, edited by Keith Tuma (Miami University Press, 2005), and in my case from my heroes poetryisnotaluxury.