We Have Waited Long Enough
by Crystal Craig

We have been quiet for lifetimes.
Told ourselves to be patient.
Told ourselves the leaders would act.
Told ourselves someone, somewhere,
with more power, more voice,
more access to the levers of change—
would finally pull them.

But we were lied to.
We saw laws
shield abusers
and punish protectors.
We saw borders
split the innocent
while the powerful crossed freely.
We labored for scraps,
drank poison,
sold forests,
and watched greed parade as democracy.

We saw Black and Brown bodies
murdered in streets and systems,
while those clutching their pearls at protest
shrugged at genocide.
We saw cages,
bribes,
and schools steeped in supremacy.
We saw the pious preach hate,
twisting scripture to crown their cruelty,
until faith itself felt hollow.

And still—
we waited.
Hoping reason would rise.
Hoping truth would matter.

But reason was gagged.
Truth drowned beneath
the soft comfort of denial.
And so we rise.

Not to burn the world,
but to save it.
Not only to rage,
but to build.

We rise to feed the children
you left hungry.
We rise to mend what you shattered,
to breathe life back into love,
to return to a sacred balance
where Earth is not a prize to be stolen
but a home to be tended.

We are not here to soothe your shame.
We are here to end the lie
that you and you alone
deserve this earth.

Step aside.
Or be swept under.

We are the flood
breaking false boundaries.
We are the fire
burning through illusions.
We are the howl beneath the moon,
the pulse of the Mother,
the breath of God,
the force that restores what you tried to erase.

We will not retreat.
We will not break.
We will plant something fierce and beautiful
in the ruins of your empires.
We will build a world
rooted in justice,
fed by truth,
and alive with hope.

And now,
to the deepest recesses of your soul,
I ask:

Does this call ignite you?
Or does it threaten you?

The answer you feel
in this quiet instant
is who you are.
What you do next
decides who we all could become.