Under the Same Sun - Rebecca del Rio

[Larry Robinson]

Under the Same Sun

Apart, we say, as a way
to soothe our separate souls,
"We're under the same moon."
Why not the same sun? The sun
whose light, too bright
cannot, will not shelter

or so we suppose. We chose
together, in so many languages,
the moon—softer, sweeter, it 
smoothes the shadows. Still the sun
shines in broken Palestine and 
Berlin at the same hour.

We shade our eyes, the luxury
of blinders, the refusal
to know what was caused,
In our name, what we allow.
We wait for the moon,
her soft absolution. Under

the same sun, we suffer
our simple losses, our separate
stupors.  Our contours,
contrasts drawn sharp, certain,
so straight, we cannot
see how my soul touches,

reaches inside your body.
A soul, silver-sweet
as the moon, a body
radiant as the sun,
the one whose life
we live within and under.

The life we must bear
to know or burn together
in elected ignorance. 

	- Rebecca del Rio