I saw scenes of war that made me,
held the dying child and bleeding mother,
watched the man who never lived without shaking shake until
he didn’t live. I know
the sea’s creatures are strangled by our greed
smell the hellfire of dry leaves stripped from naked trees but
my daughter’s hugs sink in like rain in soil like
something new will grow.
I know the forcibly displaced with no home
see the erosion of my coastline
touch the fear of generations but
seals play like sea-puppies chasing
their tales, bouncing their bellies on
bulbous boulders at the same shore shaking off
despair into the deep
and as I do the dishes the sun blushes
cherry and plum behind the house and
without purpose laughter tickles our tongues and
rattles our chest and on any given day a stranger’s smile
can save a life and sex can be good not
just a weapon and white veronicas bloom even
after winter and someone somewhere
is starting to sing.
We weep on knees for centuries to learn lament
is the shape of hope.