May we see all people the way Claire Wineland did.

May you find soft laps to curl up in

Sunlight to warm your fur

Perches the right height to leap from

The exact amount of adventure you require

Morsels of delight to devour

And the joy of peeing anywhere you please

Wherever you’ve gone,

your people’s love is there.

Whether you feel purposeful and strong, filled with resolve, come in.

Be with us and share your strength.

We will be lifted.

Whether you feel broken, shattered, utterly depleted, come in.

Be with us and put down the shards of spirit you are carrying.

We will hold them for you.

Whether you feel like the glue is still drying

from where you put yourself back together as best you could,

and you’re feeling all right,

perhaps a bit tentative tinged with optimism, come in.

We can hardly even see the cracks,

and even when we can, we don’t mind.

We have them too.

Let the light wash over us together,

in all our imperfections.

 

August 2018

 

(c) 2018 Betsy Rosenblatt Rosso |
please only repost or reprint in entirety and with credit given

We come together seeking sanctuary

from an unjust world

only to find injustice around us

and within us

 

When we are brave

we keep on seeking justice

we fight for others who have no voice

we hope that someone will fight for us

when the time comes

 

June 2018

 

(c) 2018 Betsy Rosenblatt Rosso |
please only repost or reprint in entirety and with credit given

We are the broken branches, splintered by the wind

We are the thousand twigs scattered across the yard

We are the enormous, unshakeable oak

—apparently we are actually shakeable—

that boomed to the ground, just barely missing the house

 

Uprooted

leaving a chasm of earth

displacing those who depend on us to live

We are the bird that picks up those twigs to build a new nest

We are the squirrel that finds acorns revealed by the fallen oak

 

We are the ancient elm propelled by the storm onto a car

Shattering the windshield, crumpling the roof

(we are also the car)

We are the friends who came and cut up the tree

While we were working a weekend shift at our second job

We are the firewood shared with neighbors and the warmth it provides

We are slices of elm for playgrounds and pathways

We are the people who walk or jump across them

We are the wind

We are the calm after the wind subsides

 

March 2018

 

(c) 2018 Betsy Rosenblatt Rosso |
please only repost or reprint in entirety and with credit given