I wouldn't even recognize you,
nor you I.
How we have changed and grown,
how the years and loves
have formed us.
How the trials have toughened
or beaten us.

I hope you are well.

I hope that the world has not
stricken the love from you,
and that the lives which
surround you and which you surround
still smile upon your kind soul.

I hope you have not been beaten too much.

I hope you have faced down more trials
than have faced down you,
and that the things which you have conquered
have been strengthening instead of
diminishing to your spirit.

Of all hopes, I hope that you still
find a reason to smile
every day.

you open up the newspaper
that declares another man
has taken what wasn’t his.

‘disappointing,’ you mutter,
turning the page.
‘look at the world, today.’

‘today?’ i ask,
a voice so small.
small as we have always felt.

open up a history book,
read it.
no, not those white men
gentrifying the world.

those women.
the ones of every colour,
orientation, size and class.

now, sir, do you understand?
those men are every man.
those women are every woman.

today is every day.