Poetry Reading at the Indivisible Durango General Meeting November 15, 2025

Listen to the amazing poems written by Fort Lewis College students and read aloud at the November meeting.

And she wore white pants again

By Molly Mosier - FLC Nov 2025

I smoked a cigarette with stranger who said she was a therapist

White pants against black air

She had to leave at 3, treat patients who weren't me

I thought I quit in July but it was October

A package sent through time, wrapped in a bow, waiting for me in Bodo

I sat there on a hill, in the trees, still and cold,

My bones hurt, but I knew their little bones hurt more 

And so did my friends

White pants against green grass

She had an appointment at 9

Rubber bullets flying into backsides

Tears stinging down young faces

Elders thrown in and out of cars

Down hills, Knees to necks, Broken promises of aid

That chainsaw screaming in the ears of children 

Children screaming in my ears for their mother 

Their mother gasping for their sisters breath 

Face first, mouth foaming, and nobody could breathe

She never made it to her appointment 

Baby fingers gripped my thigh so tight

Like a bite from a rabid dog

If we were in an active warzone, it would have been a war crime and

I do not consider the body’s innate response to stay alive violence

But you do

You who watched them drag a student by her ankles 

Pulling skin across pavement

You who sat and stared as we were brutalised

White pants stayed with white pants stained

You who turned and ran while we ran to you for help

And I saw red over blue over brick

We were gathered peacefully 

And you called it a riot

A Current of lies 

If I was this bad at my job I wouldn't have one and you could not have done a better job creating mistrust if you had tried. 

So I smoked a cigarette with a stranger who was actually a therapist 

Complimentary Opposite

By Teegan Schuler, FLC, Nov 2025

“Complimentary opposite - the phrase spoken by a TPUSA member at FLC “

“And a woman is the complimentary opposite”

I heard him say

And with no retaliation from the crowd, the words rang into the universe

And a woman is the complimentary opposite, I know

Like I before E and Adam before Eve, I’ve known

These lessons repeated in my ear as meaningless memorizations

And a woman is the complimentary opposite

The first time I’ve heard it that caused me hesitation

And I know it’s conflation of definitions

But I know it’s the “Damnation” of humans made by

A woman, is the complimentary opposite

For the liberation from lactation, abdication of menstruation

And it’s weird but I think only Adam lost Eden

And a woman is the complimentary opposite I know

But sometimes I wonder if Adam even ever consumed from the tree of knowledge

Because it would take a man years to understand what hit me in the moment

Laughing about how ridiculous the concept is, that a woman is an accessory

Feminism was created for men to grasp what the women have known all along

And a woman is the complimentary opposite

For the fat on my chest and the bleeding pain not to be discussed

Sex is nothing to the ones who never suffer

I never knew what was about to happen, just to apologize

“Can’t live with them, can’t live without them,” isn’t that the definition of

A woman? As the complimentary opposite

Jesus carried the cross for 6 hours

Mary carried God’s son for 9 months

And a woman is the complimentary opposite

I wish it wasn’t true

I know I’ll never be forgiven

I don’t think I’d trade it for the world.

And a woman is the complimentary opposite,

The lies told

That God is the father above all mothers

And that Eve was so easily tricked by the serpent

And that a woman is the complimentary opposite

I thank God that I’m a woman, and not the complimentary opposite, I know.

I know I feel like a woman and I’ve never felt like the complimentary opposite