silence

who are we
when we wake in the morning
to light that slants through
tree and glass and window
and birds that sing of wonder and love
and yet racism still beats its ugly heart
in our community
our neighbourhood
the table where we gather to eat.

who are we when
we let silence be our voice
and our words be those
of who speaks the loudest –
regardless of the discord
the hate, the fracture
those words cause.

who are we when our body
that is our neighbourhood,
our town, our government
goes unchecked by our silence.

who are we
when our daughters still live afraid
to walk alone, to raise their voices –
afraid to shout their names to the waiting sky.

who are we when we define ourselves
by our boundaries and borders and fences
around our homes, our bodies, our hearts
turning our internal landscape
into a prison camp of fear and loathing and isolation –
forgetting our infinity,
our animal bones
our selves.

who are we when we forget
that beyond our skin
our body lives – boundless.
a seamlesss expression
of the wondrous beauty of the world.

who are we
when we remember.