Empathy
Is when you stop feeling deeply sorry for someone
And start wearing their scars
Like birthmarks
All red, rash, and sore
I’m reminded how Eli buckled
The eve
He heard
We had spoke.
In the months that followed
Made himself a broken bottle bloodbath
While managing to remain sober.
There was so much red splatter
On his words
I had to wonder what had died
And if we’d ever find it.
We did.
Mary Anne never said much.
That’s not to say
She never talked. Constantly
In the mood to take her
Ghost off
And strike it like flint
Against the skeletons in her closet, hoping
To spark life. Death
Feels so cold
In the hands of a daughter
Never held by a father.
My hands were no substitute.
Often, Sarai would try and remind herself
That there are rivers of beautiful music flowing through her
On nights she had a hard time hearing it
She would play her wrist like a violin
Using a bow made of razor blades.
To this day she still bleeds out of tune.
Listen close enough. You’ll hear it.
Like their pain is
So deep in your eardrums
You back break dances baselines
And melodies
Are the only religion
You feel comfortable calling your own
(Nhat Hanh once said,)“Only your compassion and
Your loving kindness are invincible, and without limit.”
So break me invincible.
Until I am bullet proof enough for both of us
Until my prayers cut the strings that have your hands
Bound behind your heartbeat
Until I can un-break all that’s broken in your home
Until I can
Raise the death out your bones
Break me
When mill workers in Ahmadabad, India
Were left starving families
Mahatma Gandhi adopted their hunger
Into his body as he starved with them
Till his skin clung to his ribs
Like a mother cradling her still-born fetus
It is said that when Ghandi fasted
Entire cities left their lamps
Unlit at night
Uniting a nation in the darkness of injustice
And the subsequent fight to take back the light
I’m still waiting
That one day
My eyes would adjust
Teach me how your hallways feel in my dark
On 9-11, Muslim extremists
Flew planes into our buildings until
Two towers dropped.
On 9-12, and every year since,
East End Muslims have gathered
To mourn every life lost
Because they believe
The quality of human
To be a stronger bond than
The division of hate
It’s left me whittling a hunch
That all of us
Got big broken angels buried in our back yards
Waiting to be dug up
Waiting to be held wingspan
To each other
Find sanctuary in the chapel
Of our collective scars
Break me invincible
I am willing to risk
You smashing my heart
Cause sometimes
The only place left
That we still feel
Is music
Knowing we need more.
Sounds waves
Come crash
On the reefs barricading our love
High tide’s in our throat
Fears cast in the sun
So the ripple that swells
Comes welcome,
Though fast
Don’t skip me like some stone
Build us invincible
Just
Like that splash
