Methods may be gray,
but motivations are fairly clear—
compassion or greed,
it all stems from here.

How you will act
may depend on detail and fact
Complex and divisive, easy to hide,
But the reason why is easy to spy:

Compassion or greed,
self or surrender,
Be honest and the truth
will rise like a cinder.

How the fire started, or the physics of the burn,
These objective elements are irrelevant
To the shades of light cast on faces of concern.

If the flames of conflict rise
What shall we hold on to?
There’s no structure
Incorruptibly true

The only hope we have
Is to draw each other near,
Hand fast in hand
Turn to face our fears

And if we fall
We may well bruise,
But no reason to believe
We’ll not rise through

The uncertainty that pins us,
The history we don’t know,
We’ll trust each other’s hearts
And learn, wide-eyed as we go,

To put out the fires
That began so long before
And reach across
To those others have ignored.

It’s not a game
one hopes to win,
We all will lose
There in the end.

A sad known truth
You might consider:
We can’t protect
The ones we love;

Choose this path
And it will claim your heart,
For those who volunteer
Are sure to part.

It won’t be light,
It won’t be easy,
But you may find something
As your eyes meet

Those of others who
have made the choice
To live for those
Without their own voice.

Some absolutely
Elemental sense
That life can be more
than self reference.

Stand upon your own will,
Join the line of rough claspt hands
Only if you know you can
Give up safety for solidarity’s demands.

And know that even
When night falls,
You are not truly left alone:
The voices of rebel tradition call

To fill your breast
With one more gasp
Of living empathy
That warmed the souls of many
before you, and before me.

Like the shore meets the sea
So at night my thoughts to thee