In This Broken World, We Must Learn To Love

We balance
on the slippery edge
of epiphany and madness.
Ignorance and venality
are everywhere we look,
assaulting our senses,
whether they are spewed from an angry mouth
or fired from a gun.

and we can feel it too
can we not?
inside ourselves,
bubbling up,
trying to force itself
to our surface,

this bitterness and rage,
this hatred,
that we cannot make the others see
what is right in front of their faces;
perhaps if we smash;
we just smash those faces;
those smug, self-righteous faces,
then they will see,

but we must be
love,
we must be
love

and there is nothing harder;
more impossible to be,
when we are assailed,
day after day after day
with violence and greed and inhumanity,
flying at us,
battering us,
wave after wave after wave,
stupidity and suffering and ugliness,
all we can see,

but we cannot waiver;
we must admit
that underneath this strong veneer
there is nothing
but terror
that we will not
survive;
that we will not have
enough,

and we must be
love,

for everyone,
even those whom we despise;
who belittle us and wish us ill;
who strike at us and long for our destruction;
who come at us with guns and knives;
and sneers and smiles,

we must see the chain,
stretching back
millennia now
and we must
break it
once and for all

we must be
love
my sisters and brothers.

Will you join me
please
in love?