Poem for Today

A young woman was raped and murdered in my next-door neighbourhood.

I am reminded of my own mortality
and wondering how I might go about my life
not to further the conditions in which this is still plausible?

and to further more favourable conditions
that no more people are hurt, nor hurt nor harm one another


In me: This harmless hippie,
and also another, worried warrior.

A third, then: a coward, overwrought with fear
and then a fourth: a wandering mystic
looking for love
then slowly I am
the Beloved, who is always already loved
and then the Lover, graceful and faithful


I am a loner among extroverts
and a leader among few,
yet I have known my own power to hold a heart and break it
known in my own body my power to captivate a room and then steer it
a fever in me that leaks out sometimes in music
or rashes

I am a fish in a frigid ocean
frozen among dead gods and reptiles
I give birth to Me,
first mammal and
first-Held
eyes closed, dreaming justice
heart open, allowing truth


Who will I become?

Who will we all be?

What is my role in all this?

What is our role in all this?