decolonization

 decolonization

"happiness is not found in things you possess, but in what you 

have the courage to release." --Nathaniel Hawthorne

when did we fall asleep to the love

who is both lamb and lion

in our rampant quest to colonize

everything into the language of "nice"

not to mention souls and plants 

and land

why sterilize the story

it was more like a bar fight

for he was not timid

in cleansing the temple

did not wait to make sure it was

a good time for the money changers

made no apologies for jettisoned coins,

splintered, upturned tables

like my grandfather, the one

who broke his hip at 96

this nice bill whom everyone liked

who slipped on ice while shoveling snow

for elderly neighbors

was the same farm owner

who, decades before, pinned his own worker to the 

barn wall for mistreating someone

else

i want to fall awake to the 

kind of action that can uproot a 

plant for its own good

speak up for those who can't or won't

and pin wrong to the barn wall

the brand of nice that embraces conflict

and calls a spade a spade

because in being truly loved

we can reveal ourselves

allow the truth to set us

free

ls 11.19.20