Some days are better than others. These books of beautiful poems arrived today and I can’t wait to get lost in them. Poems are meant to be read, re-read, read aloud, chewed over and discussed so they can sink into the marrow of our bones and bond with our souls. Here’s to a soul-bonding weekend 📚🥂
How to love
Love with your whole heart—
Your mind
Your body
And soul.
It sounds cliche
But try it.
It’s the hardest fucking thing you will ever do.
Akin to peeling back your skin
Revealing your veins and saying
Look
This is me
Naked
I am yours
The pulsing of your blood
From the chambers of your heart
Down to your loins
All visible for him to see
Just where to cut you
with the lies in his heart—
His mind
His body
And black and gutless soul.
It hurts.
But pain
Is proof of life
And life is good.
A thousand Wednesday protests pass in Junghak-dong,
But still they call you liars.
Your aged backs bend beneath their hate.
Why is it easier to believe that you are whores,
Than to believe soldiers become beasts?
Who are these deniers of history?
Look at every nation, I say to them,
Show me an army that does not rape.
Iraq.
Syria.
Congo.
Sudan.
Bosnia.
Liberia.
Rwanda.
Chechnya.
Afghanistan.
Sierra Leone—there is no end.
The truth of war is known: ‘And I will gather all nations against Jerusalem for battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses plundered, and the women ravished…’ At least Zechariah documents his shame.
To you grandmothers, I say, Bend no more, the shame is not yours to carry.
Mary Lynn Bracht 