Hold callus in your hand.
Catch abrasions on knees.
Prepare skin for laceration.
When it comes, cradle it.
Gaping wounds don’t appear
overnight. Reassure it, aside
from the callous of the world,
it will always have a home
with you, as it weeps.
For several million years, we’ve bowed to fate,<br></br>we’ve been locked in an arms race eons old.<br></br>It’s only now we can retaliate<br></br>against the architect; we’ve rolled<br></br>the dice of evolution many times,<br></br>and been subjected to its harsh selection.<br></br><br></br>We’ve been the victim of its many crimes.<br></br>Now we’ve perfected our means of protection,<br></br>and tamed the outer world – but not the inner.<br></br><br></br>This life belongs to you, the fittest ape,<br></br>in this long game you are the winner –<br></br>you are the pinnacle and can escape<br></br>the chains of selfish interest placed at birth:<br></br>create the world you wish to see on Earth.<br></br>
I submitted two haiku to the Sakura Haiku Challenge of the Consulate-General in Toronto, Canada and they are both included in the beautiful anthology. Free to read and download: 👇🏽
We can numb it with
ice. It might take time.
But o’clock we’ve got.
And at absolute zero,
frozen stares and
charges flow in pairs,
with even the halting
halted on stairs, and
hate might as well
be a popsicle stand
and it’s loving
standing still,
by the way.