When we are raised within systems of manipulation and control
When oppression and abuse are the diet we're fed alongside claims of love and care
When text books advertisements and ancestral lore leave out the violence and the gore
When the loudest voices are convinced of their own exceptionalism
When our homes schools and workplaces reek of fascism
When that poison leaks out of mouths and hearts
When thousands of children are massacred
On this exquisite planet swirling through space
In the exact same moment that our lungs fill with air
And instead of warm tears
Deeply lodged fears
Come up with hot bile
Regurgitated to defend the vile
We are wounded children
Seeking belonging and protection
Where it can't be found
Our safety doesn't come from bombs or guns or walls or guards or prisons or control or bigness or bullies or presidents or loudness or hoarding
Our safety is in our ability to cry when children anywhere suffer
Our safety is in seeing ourselves in those children
Those children need us grown ups to stop arguing and start protecting them
even when it's complicated
Our safety is in belonging to one another
Siblings across every spectrum of difference
Stop the killing. Stop the destruction and poisoning and starving. Stop the abuses against children for power hungry tyrants. Stop the genocide. Stop allowing state governments to terrorize people, massacre children, and then call themselves heroes and defenders. Stop the complicity and enabling.
#ceasefire #freepalestine #freethehostages