When asking how others were faring We did not expect an honest or full response. What words can answer how we're remaining alive? - Amanda Gorman

If we're to live up to our own time,
then victory won't lie in the blade.
But in all the bridges we've made,
that is the promise to glade,
the hill we climb.
If only we dare.
It's because being American is more than a pride we inherit,
it's the past we step into
and how we repair it.

CALL US Grant us this day Bruising the make of us. At times over half of our bodies Are not our own, Our persons made vessel For non-human cells. To them we are A boat of a being, Essential. A country, A continent, A planet. A human Microbiome is all the writhing forms on & inside this body Drafted under our life. We are not me — We are we. Call us What we carry.

Always remember that
What happened to us
Happened through us.