ALREADY ONE:WON
reshaping reality
awakened by tragedy
pushed into changing
we’re not really strangers
thoughts & words change our pictures
but what’s solid isn’t vision
not seen but felt
soft sifted
hard packed
we insist we’re so different
it’s what we choose when indifferent
the space you see
between you and me
is no space at all
if you close your eyes
we all choose the distance
we think it keeps us safe
it keeps us weak
it makes us prey
and when we pray
though we call it different names
it’s to the same thing
we’re all the same thing
one massive loop of care
already in solidarity
once enough of us understand this
our hearts will lighten with collective power
embolden our actions
see connections where they’ve been obscured
strengthen our words
and the justice we long for
will come as easily as our next breath
inhale
exhale
together
After writing this poem this morning, my heart still full of ache, i wept in the afternoon. Tears of grief ran down my cheeks and stained my shirt as i grasped a pillow, shaking with the violent movement of a bodymind processing harm.
Since Monday i have thought of my kin in humanity who were taken by an act of terror at the Islamic Center. i attended the vigil last night. The poem came to me after.
To aid in moving through my grief this afternoon i listened to a guided meditation. At the end the guide offered the phrase “Ahimsa Paramo Dharmah” which when translated means “Non-violence is the ultimate dharmah.” But this isn’t the full phrase. It ends with “Dharmah Himsa Tathaiva Cha.” Translated: “So too is violence in service of dharmah.”
That is to say it is the moral duty of a person to practice violence if it is used to stop a greater violence or evil. It is a duty to fight against injustice.
i think of all the people who have stood up to injustice in recent years taken by the state. These people acted in service to those wrongfully harmed & detained by the state. Our kin in flotillas trying to feed Palestinians, our kin stopping ICE and monitoring movements, our kin who show CEO’s the consequences of their actions.
i do not see a path to peace that is passive. Peace is an active pursuit, a duty to fight against injustice. i do not care for the means, but life under terror must end. The end can begin when we see there is no distance between us.