FACING DEATH

When one speaks out about injustice, inequity - when you speak out against racism, sexism, homophobia you practice embracing life while preparing for death.

Each time you speak you face the death of associations, the death of what some people thought of you, how some people viewed you. You risk the death of friendships,of family relationships. You face the possibility of the unmasking of conditional love and provisional respect. You face the possibility of that death coming at your own hands as you drop the executioner’s axe on the lines that tie you to someone you once viewed as friend, support, backup.

You walk with death, stare it in the face, sit with its shadow, hear its whispers. You see the bodies and hear the stories of the fallen. You know that could be you someday. Sometimes that stops you.

But only sometimes.

You know your death is coming and before that, after that, the births of others who will either wish you had risked these deaths or thank you for each and every one of them. Others did it before you. You are here, able to risk - or not - because of them.

Deaths of many sorts await. And if we don’t face them, learn them, defy them, who will?

Poem: I BELIEVE IN MAGIC

I BELIEVE IN MAGIC

There is magic, child,

in how people rush

to justify the unjust

how protectors

can kill with impunity

and almost 

every

time

be found guiltless

and go free

There is magic

in how speaking out

is a bigger problem

than injustice itself

There is magic

in how the right act

is an affront to liberty

in how doing better

is slavery

and the expectation to do better

is oppression

There is magic in how

somehow

there is not Enough to go around

but there is always Enough

for more of the same

There is magic

in how racism thrives

but no one is racist

in how sexism lives

as excuses die

and in how They demand

you always say "Please"

to get Them to give you

what you should already have

There is magic around you, child.

Just open your eyes.