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.