For all of us both hurting & healing who choose to carry on. - Amanda Gorman

We’re more conditioned To contagion than combat. But a virus, just like a war, separates us From our fellow people. Yet if we are willing, the cut Can be an aperture, the hole Through which we reach for the whole Of one another.

Meaning, we cannot stand up to police If we cannot cease policing our imagination, Convincing our communities that this won’t work, When the work hasn’t even begun, That this can wait, When we’ve already waited out a thousand suns. By now, we understand That white supremacy & the despair it demands Are as destructive as any disease.

We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace, And the norms and notions of what “just is” Isn’t always justice.