Gretchen Rockwell | The Rebellion | Poets Resist

Gretchen Rockwell is a queer poet and supplemental instructor of English at the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Newport, RI. Xer work has appeared in Glass: Poets Resist, Into the Void, Noble/Gas Qtrly, Crab Fat Magazine, and the minnesota review as well as in other publications. Xe enjoys writing poetry about gender and sexuality, history, space, and unusual connections.

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Poets Resist
Edited by Jonathan May
June 14, 2018

Gretchen Rockwell

The Rebellion

for Loan "Kelly Marie" Tran i. Somehow, when you weren't looking, the rancor slipped its chain. ii. Oh, you knew it was there — you'd felt those brushes with the ragged shadows, the under-the-bed murmurs of menace. You felt the unease iii. growing as you did, the dark side of what you once loved growling louder, unable to be ignored. iv. In retrospect, you should have known: love is what consumes. At least, what they call love. v. You'd think they'd have learned the lesson: the more you clutch what you love to you, attacking any perceived threat to it, the more you will fail. Hate will swallow you whole. vi. You thought things were turning. You thought you were winning the war. vii. You didn't expect this free reign: stomping flat more than just gatekeepers to rend the flesh of our heroes, roaring in triumph, fleshy maw dripping with rabid bile. viii. What do you call a monster that knows what it's doing? (A man.)

As a Star Wars fan, I'm troubled by the toxicity of a fandom that I've loved and been part of since childhood, but in many ways this is about more than Star Wars. What is now vividly appearing in that fandom is reflecting what's happening in other areas of society in terms of visible and vocal racism, sexism, and entitlement — which must be acknowledged and fiercely condemned. (Note: this isn’t just men reacting this way, but seeing as they are the demographic of Dark Side users in all the movies, it seemed a fitting last line.)