Affirmation

My dear sister friend Michelle shared this with me today and I want to share it with you.  It was written by Assata Shakur.  She says:

Affirmation

I believe in living

I believe in the spectrum

of Beta days and Gamma people.

I believe in sunshine.

In windmills and waterfalls,

tricycles and rocking chairs

And I believe that seeds grow into spouts.

And sprouts grow into trees.

I believe in the magic of the hands.

And in the wisdom of the eyes.

I believe in rain and tears, 

And in the blood of infinity.

I believe in life. 

And I have seen the death parade 

march through the torso of the earth, 

sculpting mud bodies in its path.

I have seen the destruction of the daylight,

and seen blood thirsty maggots

prayed to and saluted.

I have seen the kind become the blind and the blind become the bird

in one easy lesson.

I have walked on cut glass

I have eaten crow and blunder bread

and breathed the stench of indifference.

I have been locked by the lawless

handcuffed by the haters.

Caged by the greedy.

And, if I know anything at all,

it's that a wall is just a wall

and nothing more at all.

It can be broken down.

I believe in living

I believe in birth

I believe in the sweat of love

and in the fire of truth

And I believe that a lost ship, 

steared by tired, seasick sailors,

can still be guided home

to port

                         -Assata Shakur

Purify

  I.  To be staggering through the woods at night 
             with no flashlight
       is daunting.

            One night in early summer, October found herself in the woods surrounded by tall, looming trees.  They looked placed as though someone carefully bore giant holes in the ground with electric stakes and strategically nestled these tall creatures into the earth in an intricate pattern that was designed for this very moment in time to prevent October from finding her way out.
            "This is a test," she decided when noticing that she could walk for exactly 50 paces between each tree.  "It's just too perfect not to be."
              She stood for a moment leaning her head against the crooked trunks and held out her hand to see only a faint glow emerge from her indigo skin.  It matched the dark night.  With new determination, she looked up, curving her frail neck as far back as possible and searched for the sky.  The branches of the trees formed an impenetrable canopy that she couldn't see past.
              There was a constant hum in the distance.
            She craved fire, a glint of starlit sky, the glow of a deer's eyes.  Anything.  But there was no light. She took comfort in a gentle breeze gracing her cheek.  She closed her eyes, counted to fifty, and walked again.