Let’s Have THAT Talk

Here is a poem that Bucknell student Ariel E. Ulrich’ 25 wrote in response to her visit to the Samek Art Museum with Roger Rothman’s Art of Protest Class. Thank you for sharing your beautiful words, Ariel.

 

Let’s have a talk
About opioids
About oppression

 

Let’s have a talk
About lives lost
About lives stolen

 

Let’s have a talk
About buildings burning
About buildings crumbling

 

Let’s have a talk
About masks
About obscurity

 

Let’s have a talk
About smoke
About ash

 

Let’s have a talk
About rape
About blooding dripping down the drain

 

Let’s have a talk
About unity
About polarization

 

Let’s have a talk
About riots
About revolutions

 

Let’s have a talk
About white
About black
How life is more
It’s gray
It’s colorful
It’s messy

 

Let’s have a talk
About rising up
About inspiring change

 

We’re more powerful than still images
We have more power than words
We can do more than just talk
We have movement, mobility, and actions
Those can change the world

 – Ariel E. Ulrich