it there was not a shallow
mighty as the waters hang
payloads fell and footpaths gave
to mercy they will never ask
whom murmurs softly send sincere
this sinking fife and drum
of burden's restless hum
calling wishing for a storm

remember summer and
gin and vague brotherhood
rising from coma with effervescence
(now look what you've done)
killer of the noble herdsmen
making nightmares should
not be this effortless

calm brings dear ones in
light embraces you
remember summer and
see it forever
rest your lids on that image
before darkness supplants tears

You,
Are my brother.
You,
Are my sister.

You are my tribe,
My people,
My Family.

To see the day,
Witnessing the ways we hate each other,
Thrusts a knife through my heart, and out the other side.

The weight of the world falls upon us when we see the loss of our brothers, our sisters,
Born of the same blood,
As you, and I.

I am not scared,
I am sad,
I am disappointed to see the ways,
The walls we build that separate us from the other.

There is no other,
Only Us.

You,
Are my brother.
You,
Are my sister.
You are all my family,
And my Blood.

To see the blood spilled for the sake of nothing,
Forsaken are we to each other.

Come together,
You and I.
Come, my sister,
Come, my brother.

We shall stand,
Hand in hand.
until the day we fly.

~Robert van Lingen

A swathe of green awash,
With mourning dew;
Soaks the toes of my shoes,
Bearing witness to my passing,
As I bear witness to the passing of others.

A velvet topography,
Of ridges and furrows,
Undulations of light and shade,
A land born of upheaval,
And tectonic collisions,
With a fault line for a spine.

Assume nothing.
All you understand and have known to be so
only exists momentarily
and is subject to change without notice.

Assume nothing,
the very ground beneath your feet,
apparently solid and secure and immutable,
is in fact filled with water
which will rise to the surface
turning streets to rivers
in less time than it takes to make a cup of tea.

Assume nothing.
All things are subject to change.
The ground beneath your feet,
usually so predictable and reliable,
can be filled with rushing seismic energy
which bucks and shakes the surface of the planet under you
displacing energy that tears through you
and everything else
dissipating and leaving behind
- amongst the after shocks
and piles of brick -
pulls and stretches in the warp and weft of everything.

Assume nothing. Be unafraid.