Forgotten Ground Regained
Grace
Sarah Monnier
The fighting flights above · and flyting in the streetsthat meet and mesh, a maneuver both of mindsand of strength that staggers · between stone and rock.The rockets and the rage, the ragged masses,beset upon by bombs · or by bullies on the hill,All are affected, afflicted · and empowered or emptied.The wine at the wedding, the well-wishers of Cana,becomes spilling blood · in the blackness,ferrous fenestrations · falling in defenseof the lives that linger · within these limestone walls.Parents and progeny, peaceful or pugnacious,brothers by blood, bombing each other.Fractured, there is fear, force standing infor self-knowledge, and the stunned civilianscan only cower, casualties of corruption.Across the ocean, importance affirmingof freedom and faithfulness, friends forged in firesstoked by statesmen · whose strength is in falsehoodprepare to march, provoked and proud,determining to defy · the devil if need be.The signs that painted · stand, stretched highto topple tyrants, truth to proclaim,and the downtrodden · to defend, denyingnobody their needs · or their name.Black is the blood · of the brothers and sistersrunning in rivers, reminding us we remainthe same, siblings · when skin is sundered,cousins when craniums · are cracked and concussed.We, the ones with power, walk in white for thosewho hide, horror-struck, hopeless and voiceless."You will yet be yourselves, yawning though the night be,You will not be forgotten, nor fall into faceless deathunmourned or unloved. Our enemies are alike.Our voices are valiant, victory and justice,for justice we are jealous, for the jubilee,proclaim for the prisoners, pronounce freedom,and bright sight for the blind: “Blessed are those who mourn."Tomorrow and tomorrow · and tomorrow will not tollthe trumpet of the return · of the Truth, but till thenwe walk for those who, unwelcome in their own homes,or lacking love for the lost, languish in cellsboth physical and a figment, formless in mind,behind bars of iron · or blindness of heart.May the meek inherit, and the mighty be made low.
Copyright © Sarah Monnier, 2025
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