My body slumped today
My eyes puffed up and blurred
My legs began to ache
My mind got in a whirl

I tried some sleep
To burn it off
I tried to rest
But couldn’t
Perhaps a pill
Would **** my ills
Perhaps a pill
Wouldn’t


My head thumped through the day
My bones bumped and swayed
My neck swelled
My shoulders ached
Perhaps some wine would set me straight?
Perhaps some wine
Wouldn’t

The truth is –
I am not worthless
I am not weak
Because strength comes from character
It comes from what you do
When your back is up against the wall

Worth is not measured by how much money you have acquired
The partner you have got
The house you live in
The clothes you wear

True enduring worth lies within your heart
How you treat others
How you treat yourself
How you act
How you express your feelings
How you choose to live

The truth is -
You are not worthless
No matter what experiences
Have led you to this point
No matter what trials and sufferings you have endured
The truth is that your life
Is worth more than you can ever imagine

Would you
Could you
Embrace
Me
In my
Filthy
Nakedness?

My hairy
Smelly
Swollen
Gritty
Craggy
Nailly
Grey and paley
Specklediness?

My empty headedness
My peculiarity
My fattening
Tightly
Loosely
Growing
Shrinking
Stretchy
Unstretchiness?

My glossitic
Pharangeal
Gall bladderistic
Liver liquory
Groaning
Folding
Guttiness
Gustiness
Lustiness
Testiculus
Buttocky
Armpitty
Greas­y
Fleecy
Personage?

Could you
Would you
Embrace
This product
Of evolutionary
Engineerance?

This flabbergastable
Uncontrinchable
Everflinchable
Non-delinchable
Pe­rspickinstable?
Blob?

I’m ought
But a nought
A drought
Flout
A Scout
About
Rout
Tout
Out
O
O
O
O
O

You would…?

You...could...?

I am
Amazed
Phased
Crazed
Dazed
Sazed
Madesed
Elazed

And to you
I embrace
Your embrace
With grace
And
A smileiciouss
Splish
On my
Face

This is not
White vs Black
This is everyone vs Racism
Racism is not just a problem in America
Black Lives Matter!
Say their names
Justice for
Belly Mujinga; George Floyd; Tony McDade; Eric Gardner; Trevor Smith; Breonna Taylor; Sean Fitzgerald; Mark Duggan; Trayvon Martin; Chinedu Okabi; Ahmaud Arbery; Sarah Reed; Michael Brown; Aiyana Jones; Tamir Rice; Jordan Davies; Sean Rigg; Alton Sterling; Phlando Castile; David Dungay; Jamel Floyd; Christopher Alder; David McAtee; Julian Cole; Sheku Bayoh
No Justice, no peace
No freedom until we are equal
White silence is Violence
End Police Brutality
Stomp out racism
Stop killing my people
‘Please…please…please – I can’t breathe…’

I hear you
I see you
I stand with you

Yesterday
I took for granted
All the things that made life
What it was back then

Today
Now that things have changed
I value so much more
The food that I eat
The people that I spend time with
The air that I breathe
The sun on my face

Simple things
That I value
Simple things
That are still here
Simple things
Like being alive
In the world
At this time

Yesterday’s news
Was so important
Yesterday

Today’s news
Is so important
Today

Tomorrow’s news
Will be so important
Tomorrow

This is how it goes
With the news

Yesterday
Today
Tomorrow

We can travel
In endless circles
Of unnecessary suffering

If we fail to learn from the past
Fail to act in the present
And fail to plan for a better future

Yesterday
I saw who I was

I held my life
In my hands
And understood
Myself

Today
I am grown
Just a little
Like a tree
Pushing down roots
Birthing fresh leaves

I am expanded
Experiencing
The pain of growth
Aching, tempted to shrink back
To what I was

And I watch

Raindrops
Dancing
Down by window

A single seed
White and furry
Floating through the air
Landing
On my arm

And I know
Spring is here
And I am opening up
Like a flower

Exposed
Vulnerable
Available to the universe

To the manufacturers of plastic
You can stop now
To the fossil fuel companies
You can stop now
To the weapons manufacturers
You can stop now
To the tax avoiding corporates
You can stop now
To the battery farmers and animal testers
You can stop now
To the human rights abusers
You can stop now
To the rainforest loggers
You can stop now
To the lovers of war
You can stop now

There is no longer
Any excuse
Or rational explanation
For you to continue
Any more

You may think

I know what I am doing

But
You are mistaken

I am making it up

All of it

Sometimes I feel like a very small child
That needs to be looked after

Sometimes I wish someone would stroke my hair
and whisper reassuring words to help me get to sleep

I think of my mother, and then my father
And remember the feeling of heavy tears running down my hot childish cheeks, dampening my pillows

And I wish, just for a while, that I was young again

Birds beat
Their rhythm through the air
Advancing on unseen channels
Surely they
Are masters of living
Showing us how to soar

An infant will revitalise
An elderly one
An elderly one
Has wisdom to share
There is always hope
There is always a way
Young people
This is your day

A mix of energies
Provides hope for us all
Our differences
Are our strengths
There is always hope
There is always a way
Young people
This is your day