Summons by Aurora Levins Morales
Summons
Aurora Levins MoralesLast night I dreamed
ten thousand grandmothers
from the twelve hundred corners of the earth
walked out into the gap
one breath deep
between the bullet and the flesh
between the bomb and the family.They told me we cannot wait for governments.
There are no peacekeepers boarding planes.
There are no leaders who dare to say
every life is precious, so it will have to be us.They said we will cup our hands around each heart.
We will sing the earth’s song, the song of water,
a song so beautiful that vengeance will turn to weeping,
the mourners will embrace, and grief replace
every impulse toward harm.Ten thousand is not enough, they said,
so, we have sent this dream, like a flock of doves
into the sleep of the world. Wake up. Put on your shoes.You who are reading this, I am bringing bandages
and a bag of scented guavas from my trees. I think
I remember the tune. Meet me at the corner.
Let’s go.
KEEP READING
SHARED WITH GRATITUDE
This poem appeared in Ayin Press, 2023.
ABOUT AURORA LEVINS MORALES
Aurora Levins Morales is a Puerto Rican Ashkenazi poet, essayist, and fiction writer. She is the author of seven books, including Silt: Prose Poems, (Palabrera Press, 2019,) and Medicine Stories: Essays for Radicals (Duke University Press, 2019), and has contributed to numerous anthologies. She writes and stewards thirty-four acres of rain forest in Maricao, Puerto Rico. (Source)
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