Sacrifice - Khalil Laltoo

[Larry Robinson]

Sacrifice 

Can you feel that straining
Open the eyes within your eyes
Every particle of this and that
The leaves and cigarette butts and
The pavement
Just trying to keep themselves intact
Just trying to stay beautiful

For you

Fuchsia concentration is required
To assume that same and pleasant form
So that
If every piece were to take even one breath 

They would scatter

And expand 

All becoming all, signifying nothing

To us

Those delicate forms
Who break 
              And rearrange 
Ourselves
And burn up in the friction 

Standing still, ancient trees watch us pass.
As mothers 
watching children weep must abstain from their own tears,
They are resolute in their suffering 

Crying out
In silence

"we must hold on"

    - Khalil Laltoo