We Need a Great Flock of Stories

By Eli Clare

 

Each photo: one 

story, two; two stories, 

three; three stories, 

four, multiplied. 

 

I read the placards, 

pins, slogans: No more 

negotiating. Enough.

Sign 504 now. IAM.

Human rights.

Solidarity.

 

Let

their

words

rumble.

 

What lies between 

these photos, behind 

and beneath—whose voices,

languages, poems? 

 

I read the signs 

they carried: Access 

to work. Can’t 

back down. You might 

break your neck. Sign 

504. Remove the barriers or 

we’ll level them.

 

Let

their

words

sink in.

 

They planned rebellion, slept

rebellion, talked rebellion, argued

rebellion, strategized rebellion,

laughed and cried and

 

refused to back down. They

wrote: The hunger strike 

is in its 15th day! Keep 

your campaign promises.

MCW supports 504.

Suffered enough. Please 

no more. Bastante.

 

Let us

slur,

stutter,

drool

our rebellion.

 

Trail our fingers across 

this history, feel its cracks, 

bumps, holes, how much has been 

lost and whitewashed.

 

Not one but two, not

two but three—we need

a great flock of stories.

 

They left us:

Sign 504. Handicapped 

human rights. Disabled 

In Action. Human 

rights for all. 504 

victory.

 

Let

these photos

be signposts, neither

 

the beginning nor the end.