TW: violence, terrorism, shooting.

Mantra on the morning of the Oslo Pride parade 2022

I am safe.
I am safe.
I am safe.
I am safe.
I am scrolling through social media.
I am safe.
I am safe.
I am looking for proof that my friends are safe.
I am safe.
I am listening to journalists reporting from the scene of the shooting.
I am safe.
I am safe.
I am not sure when I last felt so unsafe.

I am safe, truly.
I am with my love.
I am not alone.
I am answering messages asking: are you safe?
I am safe.
I am safe.
I am safe.
I am crying.
I am crushed.

They cancelled our parade because a gay bar was attacked.
They said they could not guarantee our safety, so they cancelled our parade.
They thought we, like them, were used to safety, but we are not.
They hardly know us at all.
They are afraid of us they hate us they love us they do not know us.

I live in a body that sometimes bleeds, and so they call me a woman.
I am not what they say I am; I am a drop in an endless ocean.
I am not what they say I am; I am a racing pulse and a fraction of hope.
I am not what they say I am.
I am not safe.

We are not safe and yet we march.
We are not safe, that is why we march.
We are not safe, all we have is this march.
We are here today because we are not safe.

I am safe. At last, a message from the friend I had not yet heard from.

And so, I am.
And so, we march.

About the poem:

Just after 1 am, in the early morning of June 24, 2022, Oslo’s queer community suffered an attack when a mass shooting took place in the street outside of its oldest gay bar, London Pub. As a result, the pride parade scheduled for the next day was cancelled. However, thousands of people still came out and marched, first following the initial route for the parade, then to London Pub, where flags, posters and banners soon filled the street. This rally was in large part initiated by the minority organizations within our community, led by BIPOC, disabled queers and trans activists. The poem ‘Mantra’ reflects on notions of urgency and safety, as well as reasons for pride parades.

About the author:

Ida Hove Solberg (b. 1987) is a non-binary writer and text editor based in Oslo, Norway. From time to time they freelance as a translator, essayist, and literary critic. Subjects that lie close to their heart in their writing are solidarity, peace, environmental issues, and intersectional queer liberation.

Photo by Sara Rampazzo on Unsplash.