Today’s Reflection revists a classic poem chosen by the University Chaplain, Revd Dr Harriet Harris. It seems like time to revisit a classic: ‘The Bridge Poem’, by Donna Kate Rushin, from the collection, This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Colour, edited by: Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua.Rushin conveys the weariness of explaining injustices to people who don’t or won’t get it, and finds that empowerment comes in connecting with oneself, and knowing oneself, so that one can truly be of service to the world. The Bridge PoemI've had enoughI'm sick of seeing and touchingBoth sides of thingsSick of being the damn bridge for everybody NobodyCan talk to anybodyWithout me Right? I explain my mother to my father my father to my little sisterMy little sister to my brother my brother to the white feministsThe white feminists to the Black church folks the Black church folksTo the Ex-hippies the ex-hippies to the Black separatists theBlack separatists to the artists the artists to my friends' parents... ThenI've got the explain myselfTo everybody I do more translatingThan the Gawdamn U.N. Forget itI'm sick of it I'm sick of filling in your gapsSick of being your insurance againstThe isolation of your self-imposed limitationsSick of being the crazy at your holiday dinnersSick of being the odd one at your Sunday BrunchesSick of being the sole Black friend to 34 individual white people Find another connection to the rest of the worldFind something else to make you legitimateFind some other way to be political and hip I will not be the bridge to your womanhoodYour manhoodYour human-ness I'm sick of reminding you not toClose off too tight for too long I'm sick of mediating with your worst selfOn behalf you your better selves I am sickOf having to remind youTo breatheBefore you suffocateYour own fool self Forget itStretch or drownEvolve or die The bridge I must beIs the bridge to my own powerI must translateMy own fearsMediateMy own weaknesses I must be the bridge to nowhereBut my true selfAnd then I will be useful This article was published on 2024-06-24