Surviving the Election

Here
because someone in a lifetime before
saw me as deserving of life
and fought for this possible future

Here
praying for another lifetime
when someone will look up
perhaps standing on a stoplight in the nation's capitol
and give thanks for those of us now
that saw their survival as vital
and their lives as sacred

Here
because Black women raised me up
to full visibility
in front of the president's house
witnessed by the crowd
and said
*today they will see you living*

Karen Leonard