by Mary Saracino
“Another world is not only possible. On a quiet day I can hear her breathing.” --Arundhati Roy
Softly, on the sigh of a breeze
in the steady certainty of her quiet exhale
another way unfurls, answering our longing
for a different world, a place of peace and possibilities
where children always have enough
and mothers and fathers
always love without limitation
giving no thought to the things that hinder
or impoverish their hopes, their dreams.
Where on this wide round planet can
that kind of world exist if we cannot find it
within our fragile hearts, tender with desire
bruised from too many years of silencing,
too many clamoring voices drowning out
the visions of prophets and seers
poets and peons, the brilliant,crazy ones
who know that the only thing we need
to do to change everything is to be still
open our eyes, un-jail our hearts, rid our tongues
of hateful words, liberate our weary minds
of bigotry and separation, open our lungs
to joy and celebration, ride the winds of change
as if we had no other choice.
We must bury our war dead forever
bury our wars, too. We must cultivate
compassion for everything, big or little, human or not
making room for every woe, every jubilation
for it is only here inside our blood and our bones
that the breath of the world can birth her precious promise
fill us with the fortitude we need to create
a new way of life, a new way to live.
If we listen we will know how to join her
in her quiet revolution, how to echo her nonviolent wail
for justice and equality for every being
everywhere a breath is breathed, everywhere a life is born
until at last we all are free to come home
to the only home we have every truly wanted
the only place where we can resuscitate our meager hopes
with the replenishing air of her unfailing breath.
Mary Saracino is a novelist, poet and memoir-writer who lives in Lafayette, CO . Her most recent novel, The Singing of Swans (Pearlsong Press 2006) was a 2007 Lambda Literary Awards Finalist. Her short story, "Vicky's Secret" earned the 2007 Glass Woman Prize.
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