Pride

I’m so confused

Who am I?

My parents are from two different countries, races and religions

and I was born in yet another country

and grew up in yet another country still

My children’s father's blood claims four more countries

my friends DNA hail from dozens more

my extended family lives, loves, and dies in a hundred more again—colleagues and acquaintances can lay claim to the rest for sure

We’ve broken bread together and danced on tables globally

We all love this paradise blue-green planet we collectively call home.

The birds that awaken me each morning

singing sweet freedom songs

heed no nonsensical borders

and neither should an impassioned spirit, surely?

for are we not all sovereign beings, too?

—meant to soar free should we choose

—our tethers, but societal inflictions

that imprison us to ‘save us’ from

the dire consequences of a global love

yet unrequited

What truth be here upon my butterfly tongue

that tastes of blood, rape, and torture

upon the breeze

Heisenberg delivered?

Why does my heart ache

for children I have not held

to my breast as bombs are felled

from scathingly arrogant skies?

There is a rabid beast

in well-oiled manacles

made of oozing avarice and gangrenous wars

Its wretched throat could be mercifully slit

while it wallowed in dust and rubble

by veiled silken assassins

sacrificed as grieving mothers, virgins, and whores

...a justified revenge

Since noble knights and champions

are naught to be had

to slay Hades putrid beast

or they would have come

upon their noble steeds

long, long ago

swords drawn in precision strikes

that left the meek unscathed

nestled in their lullaby homes

safe and warm

Violence begets violence

and will compound in interest astounding

until spilled blood runs raging river deep

while we stand

with spineless backs turned

millions slumped shoulder to shoulder

upon the muddy shore

yes, I rage!

yet...

My heart tells me there is another path

—a road less impaling

—sublimely gentle in its slope

and vast in its scope undeniable

to lift us all in elevation

by simply deciding to do a collective shift

Change course!

We must lift our blinders first

to see our trajectory

Open our minds and hearts

Link hands resolute

Refuse to fall like the lemmings before us

into those unjustly bloodied lands

We can choose a new path

lethal weapons lain to rest

upon oceans of unmarked graves

of someone’s loved one

slain

Shelly roared, when he wrote true...

"Stand ye calm and resolute,

Like a forest close and mute,

With folded arms and looks which are

Weapons of unvanquished war.

And if then the tyrants dare,

Let them ride among you there;

Slash, and stab, and maim and hew;

What they like, that let them do.

With folded arms and steady eyes,

And little fear, and less surprise,

Look upon them as they slay,

Till their rage has died away:

Then they will return with shame,

To the place from which they came,

And the blood thus shed will speak

In hot blushes on their cheek:

Rise, like lions after slumber

In unvanquishable number!

Shake your chains to earth like dew

Which in sleep had fallen on you:

Ye are many—they are few!"

Perhaps I am no longer confused

Who am I?

I am a gentle Lioness

only just awakened from deep slumber

trampled by unbridled global nightmares

A deep growl rumbles the back of my throat

In defiance I roar

Seek and find our Pride!

The time is nigh...

for the Meek shall inherit the earth

guarded by us—

Sacred Radiant Lions

Rise up!

Rise up!

Let the Earth tremble with joy

and her Spirit soar

to hear our magnificent mighty roar!