The Articles of Extraction: A Call for Active Resistance

Jim LaVilla-Havelin

July 5, 2026

I’m thinking we’ll need

good heavy wire/fence cutters to open holes in the

detention holding tanks.

a bunch of large, strong folks with implements to 

cut open locks or knock down doors,

wearing bullet-proof vests  (if they’re going

to shoot us, they’ll have to go for our heads)

and some of these strong folks should be ordained

and with collars (is it harder for them to shoot

nuns and priests?)

Spanish speakers to translate at every site

some people ready to get arrested if need be

thousands of people waiting outside the fences –

a crowd to blend into

vans at each site to fill with people to take away to

safe houses set up in advance - sanctuaries, families,

ready to take them in

and no GPS, so no one can hack in

a single night

fearlessness, but not foolhardiness

a level of disgust with holding children and families,

huddled masses, that makes doing this

the only answer

a song to sing in the darkness that makes us,

keeps us strong in the face of everything.

I’m thinking every day we wait is a life lost.

Jim LaVilla-Havelin is an educator, editor, community arts activist, and the author of eight poetry books, including 2025's A Thoreau Book and Mesquites Teach Us to Bend. He co-edited the University of Houston Press volume on Rosemary Catacalos, serving as her literary executor.

A creative writing teacher for 50 years, LaVilla-Havelin has taught diverse populations, from juvenile correctional centers to senior programs and high schools. He served as Poetry Editor for the San Antonio Express-News for over a decade and has coordinated San Antonio’s National Poetry Month for 18 years. He received the 2019 San Antonio Distinction in the Arts.

John Cornyn—Don’t be afraid (a protest poem for Texas)

Herman Sutter

July 5, 2026

Stand up for Texas, not for Trump

Do not bow before that aging stump

Of appetite anger and selfishness

Instead call Texans to be their best

To love and share with grace and kindness

To bless each other, family and friend, stranger and homeless

And do not be afraid of tyrants or would-be kings

You are a Texan—why be afraid of anything

Except roaches as big as Cadillacs

And certain spiders and (of course) certain snakes

And jellyfish (but I digress)

Stand up, John Cornyn to your emperor’s emptiness

Only Yes-men, get singled out for praise

Yet, already he’s numbering their days

You know better than any, this is true

And so, Mr. Cornyn, I ask: What will you do? 

Stand up John Cornyn –You were not made for this

Texans do not bow to lies or boots to kiss

Stand up, John Cornyn for Texas and truth

Don’t let a thief ignore our laws and corrupt our youth

Stand up for the weak, stand up for the oppressed,

The rich and the poor, the hero and the homeless

Stand up, John Cornyn, make Texans proud

Stand up to Trump, clear and loud

Courage and love, not envy and hate,

Are the strengths real Texans bring

Stand up, John Cornyn, stand up to Trump

And make America truly great (again).

Herman Sutter (award-winning poet/playwright/essayist) is a school librarian and the author of two chapbooks: Stations (Wiseblood Books) and The World Before Grace (Wings Press), as well as “The Sorrowful Mystery of Racism,” St. Anthony Messenger. His work appears in: The Perch, The Ekphrastic Review, The Langdon Review, Touchstone, The Merton Journal, as well as: Texas Poetry Calendar (2021) & By the Light of a Neon Moon (Madville Press, 2019). His unpublished A Theology of Need was long-listed for the Sexton prize.

Uprising

Chris Ellery

July 5, 2026

When the dream 

that you believed in and trusted

turns into a whirlpool, 

you can begin to awaken.

Instinct will command you 

to kick and thrash against the spinning, 

to save your body as it is, 

your life as you would have it. 

But the water wants to change you. 

Let it take you under. 

The bottom is the real ground

of your dreaming. Only in the drowning 

can you find yourself 

and a crew of able companions 

bearing the names of every virtue, 

worthy of a great uprising.

Chris Ellery of San Angelo is the author of six collections of poetry, most recently One Like Silence. He is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters and the Texas Association of Creative Writers.