Joy

 

source

Almost everything I do harms
something or someone else.
I write with plastic-coated ink
called a pen. You see, I am
listening, though our leaders
don’t want us to remember
how to listen because it cuts
into obedience and profits,
But let us prophesize that we will
look at manufactured things
that take and take life but
never give and we’ll see their
impoverishment and we’ll learn
to make beauty as we make community—
needing each other’s love and skills
and needing every living thing
(including us) to be accompanied,
to be seen and heard and thanked
and loved so that we refuse
to learn not to use our senses,
and we celebrate that refusal,
because in truth, the wreckage
of a burned factory and
the seductive beauty
of a disneyfake world both harm,
but one is the wolf in sheep’s clothing. 
Celebrate using senses sharply
and inquisitively, celebrate
what we have in common,
celebrate not being fooled. 
Celebrate learning even when it hurts.
We can live with that.

From NaPoWriMo Day 21:  Begin by reading Sarah Gambito’s poem “Grace.” Now, choose an abstract noun . . . and then use that as the title for a poem that contains very short lines, and at least one invented word.

My blog poems are rough drafts.

Please respect my copyright.

© 2023 Susan L. Chast