By Sulima Malzin
the future is, as always, unwritten, always something
left to unfold or be discovered … a turning point,
a call to stay awake and you don’t know where to start.
With a little practice you’ll believe anything.
But there’s a profound decency in the sinews
of America. Most Americans are generous
and kind. One day everyone will have been
against this.
Poetry is one of the greatest tools we have
to consider our own lives and the lives of others.
When I die I want my heart to be covered in stretch marks.
Let’s be the same wound if we must bleed.
Let’s fight side by side even if the enemy
is ourselves.
The edge is beneath our feet.
If we keep pretending not to see it,
gravity will make the decision for us.
But there are sources of hope all around.
Find them. Cling to them. In this great turning
we shall learn to lead in love.
I’m not interested in who suffered the most.
I’m interested in people getting over it.
Why are we so monumentally slow?
The modern world was built and shaped by optimists.
We owe it to them to carry the torch.
Either we have hope within us or we don’t.
