The Great Rising

None of these arrays,

none of these enemies

make any difference

There’s no need to analyze,

no need to have a contest

to see which ill is most egregious

One group’s pleasure

is another group’s primal, causal bane —

that which, if once snuffed out

would let the touted virtue save the day

No matter,

for we’re all just trying

to find the same thing —

the same mother’s milk,

the same father’s smile,

the same certainty that

our being is worthwhile

There will be many

with whom we don’t connect

but that’s OK —

They, too, will lift a load

in the great rising

in which we bear each other up

into the new day.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 23, 2015