Pittsburgh

Today I am reposting The Color Of My Blood which I wrote for the victims of Pulse nightclub. Today I feel it is fitting after another senseless act of violence. My thoughts are with the people of Pittsburgh. The victims woke up Saturday morning and all they wanted was to practice their faith, to observe the sabbath. I have no words.

The shape of my eyes,

the sound of my voice,

the shade of my skin,

my sexuality.

The color of my blood

the same 

as yours.

If you saw the light in my eyes,

if you saw my mother's tears,

if you felt her fears,

grief engraved on her skin.

Would you have yanked me

like a weed from the
garden of life,
Would you have shattered
me in pieces
 leaving me
to bleed out in the dark.
Ideologies differ,
dreams unalike,
my diversity
makes me
unique,
beautiful,
majestic,
a beacon in the fiber
of humanity.
The shape of my eyes,
the sound of my voice,
the shade of my skin,
my sexuality.
The color of my blood
same as yours.

This Is All we Have

The divine exists in the details,

in the mornings,

in the tangerine sunrise.

If we lay our lips to it

we could taste life for a moment.

We could succumb to the truth,

that today is all we have.

The certainty that tomorrow

we will mourn today.

Today with all its

grace,

fear,

challenges,

humility,

and shame.

We must grasp it fiercely,

feel it in our marrow,

hold the vision of it in 

the mantle of our minds.

This,

here and now,

is what we have.

It is not lost on me.

Watch my bright eyes,

wild with anticipation.

See the nectar roll off my chin,

listen to me roar loudly,

and know that

I am aware

that this is all we have to hold on to.