GOING FORWARD

Yes, going forward sounds easy – yet we’ve crossed so many rivers roiled with havoc. We’ve bridged  so many valleys made lower with  doubt. 

I cry at the memory of what was my sincere hatred of unhappy people – who’ve made the world unhappier.  I’ve gone to bed at night with hatred and doubt my personal valets only to awake with the only question left; WHY?  That word is the leash that has lashed me to the mast of hope.  

Going forward I will walk with hope open in one hand and doubt doubled in the other. I will hope with all the tears of the mothers who’ve lost children to the systemic hatred of the patriarchy. I will hope with all the tears of those who wait to come into our own troubled land knowing this despairing country is far better than the despair they’ve left. I will hope and be washed clean with all the tears of those who’ve  marched for justice in the streets and the courts. Those who know that when injustice is leveled at ONE it is leveled at us ALL. I will walk forward with all the hope fashioned from the depths of  a four-year-old misery. I will walk forward knowing my purpose; that justice is never achieved by detachment but through hard work – one foot in front of the other until my feet are worn and rent with protest.  

There is no valley of peace – I know now – every hiatus in the struggle, however warm with camaraderie, can be stolen and used against me. Against justice. The thieves of justice will never sleep.  I’ve had four years to learn this.  And I am, going forward, a damned good student!