Dear Poetry, Now I lay me down

dear poetry,

to poet is less about language and more about sacrifice
to say i will look so you don't have to
at the atrocities of life, the damage of this place
the cruelty, the blatant disregard, the aches the heart breaks against
look, i will peer deeply into the horror and pull back up
underworld of my very sound, hooked skin to lipped tonguing
so be it.

so be it.

make the terror beautiful, it won't hurt
as much when i hand you truth
i have wrapped it in my love, here take it

do we move closer in the gaps
the dead make

we keep believing separate
we keep believing
difference
we keep believing in I vs us vs me vs us vs them

and to poet is to say: wake up
to use your body and your life to say: wake up

every program you've been handed doesn't matter
every code that says suffer, that says less than, that says not enough

to say I would give my life is not to say I will lay down and die for you
to say I would give my life is to say I am here minding the changes
to say I keep coming here, I keep taking on this pain and this hurt and this loss
to say while we are here, let us sing
are you listening?

to walk each other home
quiet and still enough to recall
we are nothing

nothing but vibration
without end