And Yet

"To make love or war or any mess in between"

“Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” - Martin Luther King Jr.

“Diagonal” by Nicole Kurland, whose art exhibition opens at FUSION 708 on October 3

Reading: It’s September, So Let’s by Elise Powers (if you haven’t yet, you should subscribe to Two Raw Sugars)

Listening: Anthem by Leonard Cohen

Watching: President Barack Obama in Conversation with Steve Scully

And Yet

We are violent, broken creatures
We, with such elegant and primal fears
Perched on fragility’s sharpest edge
Born to fly or shoot each other out of the sky
To make love or war or any mess in between
We of bile, we of sweat, we of blisters, we of scars
Who wrap around hate when our empty parts give way
Perhaps we have no truer form

And yet

We want to eat blueberries in the winter
To grow and dance under the pineapple rain
To bathe in the river and climb to the oak tops 
To forget our bodies and imagine our souls
To perpetuate the summer in all that is fleeting
To mourn any loss, no matter how distant
To work our hands raw if for purposes greater
To die, if we must, quietly in our sleep

And yet

In these moments 
When the life we share ruptures
When reconciliation appears finally out of reach
What will we see in each other?
What will we see in ourselves?
I offer no answers where I see none
But I can say for certain, with no hesitation
It is a miracle every day 
That we find a way
To live with one another
All I can do now is look into your eyes
Whoever you are
And understand that I am staring into mirrors
And hope you might do the same

And yet