by Nichola Torbett, Associate Director of Kirkridge Retreat & Study Center

You with the frostbitten hands,

You, proffering trail mix and protein bars,

You, building street altars,

You, carrying bottled water and saline,

You with the whistles,

You, with a trunk full of candles—

Have vigil, will travel—

You, with a trunk full of groceries,

You, alphabetizing jail support forms,

You, frying sambusas for a crowd,

You, running legal support from home,

You, raising funds for mutual aid from bed,

You, making art for the streets,

You are the neurons of mighty body,

A newly constituting body,

Love incarnate,

Passion born into flesh,

The Divine come among us.

They say our bodies are made new every seven years.

The body politic is ailing, ravaged by a fever so hot

It has nearly killed its host.

It has killed far too many

For far too long.

But you are the antibodies responding,

the cells regenerating,

The neural pathways remapping

In the shape of reciprocity

Relationship

Restoration

Reparations.

You are no longer yourself.

I am no longer myself

Now that I know you.

We are becoming something new together,

Getting stronger.

We’re not naive.

We know we will hurt each other sometimes.

The poisons we’ve been fed,

Disregarded,

Disrespected,

Gaslit from birth in a nation built on deceit,

Trauma, so much trauma….

These can’t help but express themselves in us

But we are developing the antidotes

Learning how to tend this body.

Slowly, tenderly, with full hearts.

May this body be well nourished.

May this body be well rested.

May this body be well and tenderly held.

Rest now.

A new morning is coming.

Amen