For Amanda, With Gratitude

You stood yourself a beam of light,
fallen from heaven’s hallowed height,
a flash of fire swirled
round your head—
a cosmic beam of blazing red,
but no, I am of earth, you said,
of fielded earth,
where arched backs aching,
and sweated arms, bent
and breaking,
my ancestors prayed for a world
more fair,
and dared to dream
that I’d be there.

And so you stood above the tears,
and asked us each to brave
our fears,
to sweep away the shards and pain
and find the path to hope again.

You are the path. You are the prayer.
You are the light we each must bear
and bring
to broken hearts
and minds despaired, misled,
and left enraged —

for love alone can turn the page.