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