Vanity is beneath your tattered

wings, but it does not lift

you in the same way passions do -

the air in your lungs makes you lighter

with each laugh. The sigh

is what weighs you down.

I've seen your heart bleed for the boy

that never came home, I knew

he wasn't coming back. I've heard

you wail at the death of our nation - please,

let this not be the last lesson I ever learn

for I was born a student lost

in love with letters that form words, words

that build phrases, phrases that break

the wild heart I was blessed with.

Don't forget the birth of a soul

requires icy heat - the heat of our anger

creates steamy swirls swimming

away from our toes, a bubble bath

will not soothe us any longer. Those same toes

marched us right out of our kitchen

aprons into tailored suits and we cannot

look back now; what is behind

us is only a shadow of the untamed

imagination. We have practiced civility, mastered

diligence, and established a new art form: Patience.

What I see before us is hope hidden

behind fear and fear

will not tower over us because our heels

are eight inches taller - our feet are swollen

with persistence. Understand that pain

is not weakness leaving the body

because we gave birth to the armies.

Those rows and rows of armed

assassins would perish

in the face of our extinction. Mend the tears

in the wings of your enemies, the individual

is not as strong as the unit. We must whip

the dust into clouds of confusion - enshroud

those that silenced us, or thought

they did. Eclipse the minds of those who defined

us as ignorant and unworthy. Shackle

the hands that held us hostage. Seize

the eyesight of those that temporarily blinded us.

They won't see what's coming next.