Anna Geoffroy
White Rose Blues
Sophie Scholl has lived in my head
Rent free since I was sixteen
She was 21 but young enough
They called her girl when they taught us
How she was killed on the propaganda front lines
Glory and honor to her
In the years since I’ve learned about the other women
Survivors, successful fighters
Luring German soldiers into the woods
with promises under their skirts
Only to deliver the cure for fascism
From the barrels of stolen pistols
They teach young girls about Anne Frank
And hope we dream of being diarists
I became a girl who wanted to be
Arrested for carrying spraypaint and stamps
Cool as fuck in line for the guillotine
You know they don’t just kill billionaires with those things
In medieval times they had to change the rules
For how to get into heaven to stop
Young virgins from seeking sainthood
Jumping off roofs to escape barbarian suitors
Maybe I should be thinking about
Outlawing the thoughts that make me
Jump in front of motorcycles
Pick fights with redcaps and riot cops
Accelerate the ticking bomb in my chest with stress
Chemicals and crises weaponized sirens
Always trying to find the right hill to die on
And maybe I should start asking who benefits
From young girls dreaming of martyrdom
Maternal Estrangement
America is busy writing another strongly worded letter to the editor
About how her son won’t call her and how much she wants to see her granddaughter
Pointedly leaving out the fact that said grandchild is actually a grandson
Pointedly leaving out the reason the phonecall ended so badly last Guy Fawkes day
America’s always the victim
You can text America on her birthday and try to open the line back up
But she will never be ready to give you anything but excuses for the time
She abandoned you on the sidewalk to fend for yourself
Looked the other way when her husband took a swing
It’s your fault for overreacting
You can wish America a happy mother’s day but she’s never going to hear
When you try to remind her that it began as an anti war campaign
She’s too in love with Reagan’s ghost to even consider taking a step to the left
She’ll just take the excuse to remind you how miserable she is
It’s your fault America’s like this
It’s Memorial Day and America’s mascara is running as she dramatically
Mourns martyrs she never would have cared for if they came home
Makes fun of you when you put change in the cup of someone
Missing a limb, a home, a job, their health. “Look after yourself”
She pretends she knows about taking care of herself
When you get the call from the hospital that America is in a coma on a vent
That she has no ability to consent to the medical treatments keeping her organs working
When the doctors tell you the last thing she did was try
To pull the hose from her nose and call the brown girl nursing her a slur
Will you remember she loved peonies?
Will you feel a sense of duty?
Or just remember what happened the last time you tried to call
“My poetry in the 12 months that followed the 2024 US presidential election explores the struggle of integrating a personal history of prolonged and sometimes futile feeling political resistance with the realities of aging, grief, and an undermining of the sense of self.” —Anna Geoffroy
Anna Geoffroy is a Massachusetts-based poet, propagandist and pope (non-exclusive). She is the co-host of the live-to-tape Contro-Verse open mic in Malden and editor of the Holy Nonsense project. You can find her art and poetry in a variety of online and print collections and a street post near you.
