Sometimes my heart expands
With each breath
And I find my face
Soft and smiling
As this delicate and precious life
Leaves me speechless
And then
A leader’s palm thrust into the air
Honoring hatred and oppression
Severing any pretense of sanity
And welcoming fascism
As power was passed from one president to another
Policies rip through the country
Fear and despair in its wake
Unraveling the few structures of support
That this country was begrudgingly forced to make
To benefit all people
The sacred holds me closer
Wrapping me in its depth
Reminding my being of the expansiveness of this existence
Its beauty
Its wonder
Fortifying but not numbing me
To the horrors
Of crisis after crisis
Of tyrants
War
Rape
Abuse
Suffering
I will not lose sight of the Light
Even as hands slice through my heart
Saluting the Dark