Je
suis Charlie
Soy
una mujer desaparecida
I
am the woman in Mexico, Chile,
Nicaragua
disappeared and buried
in
an unmarked grave.
I am Michael Brown’s mother
I
am Eric Garner’s sister and I cannot breathe.
I
am a mother in Afghanistan
longing
to send my daughter to school
and
a woman in Iraq trying to keep
my
children safe from armies.
I
am a Syrian refugee, an Israeli grandmother,
I
am families in Nigeria grieving the loss
of
our daughter, one of the 276 taken one day.
I
am a mother whose son lies dead on the battlefield,
a
wife who bravely yet tearfully accepts the
folded
flag. My heart breaks with every
newscast,
every new report of madness, the hate
our
world is enduring. I’m reminded of the
scripture
“and
Jesus wept,” and I too weep and know in
my
head, in my heart that Mohamed,
Siddhartha
Gautama, Vishnu, Mother Teresa, St. Veronica--
all
the prophets and all the teachers and
all
the saints and even God cry with me.
I
am an American so my instinct impels me to violence.
Throw
something in a bay, riot, revolt, yell and scream
until
someone hears me, but there must be another way.
There
must be a way to find common ground.
I
cannot fix the whole world, but I can try,
try
to treat the world with kindness—random acts,
considered
acts, planned acts, spontaneous acts
of
kindness. And I can offer more hugs.
Anyone who has been following American news over the last several months knows what Kati is referring to here.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of my favorite Kati poems. The closing line makes me want both to receive and give a hug
ReplyDelete