A TIME TO REFUSE
Until I Refuse
Awakening, no longer willing to live in exile,
excluded from those places where the heart
still needs healing, I am now required to refuse.
For it is only a matter of how long we can hold
on to what is not serving. As things go to pieces,
can we commit to remember our compassion is a fertile womb offering space for what is forgiving.
And who would wish to be entitled by pretense
whether to honor or disgrace. In this disguised
play of oppressing algorithms, let us build a stage
that needs no applause and no disdain. Are we
not all called to more than this subservience.
I refuse, I will not pursue the keys to the gated
property. All the holders have managers and brokers. I see no grace in their repeated asking, no grace in the needing. When is enough what it purports to be? Yes, a child needs to suckle, come to the breast, listen to the instructions of mother
and father, perhaps appreciate kind elders,
even a rabbi, minister, imam, neighbor, or priest.
It does seem natural to look elsewhere, outside
the direct experience we are all given. Able to
learn, we will honor being told what we need
until a time comes when we must refuse.