A community is never an abstract thing but a network of deeply intersecting relations— children, parents, godparents, grandparents, cousins; doctors, dentists, daughters-in-law... When has one of us ever unravelled in complete isolation by ourselves? Fundamental rule: no closed doors; a village doesn't say get out without a hearing. It's not misguided generosity or having it too good. Would you really let one of yours languish in the wind for some impediment? What if jurisprudence turns out to be false justice? Kindness coming from elsewhere might just look like kindness: i.e. when you're asked to make a sacrifice "for your own good"— but not to anyone who grew up hearing one for all & all for one, or we've got your back. Pity the traveler who can't find safe quarters in any city in the world; who can't find rice to go with a bowl of salt or bitter gourd. Somewhere, you catch a familiar whiff— talk story, fish sauce, sampaguita; though under a benevolent moon, spiked things will visually threaten with their shadows. Wouldn't you willingly go to war for one of your own? X-linked trait of those with histories of oppression. Yellow is to treachery is to cowardice is to peril they ascribe? Zip it. We're not taking it. You heard me. Zip it.
Purveyors of fine poetry since 2003.