Who Can Stand? - Kalia Mussetter

[Larry Robinson]

Who Can Stand?


Who can stand

in the borderlands of suffering?

Suffering far afield from what

can be born in any given life?

Who can stand with me here?

Who can stand with my beloved kin

whose days and nights

have pushed and pulled and shoved

them far beyond the barriers

protecting normal life?

Who can stand with us out here

where the winds are sharp

and blow like driven nails,

where the coldest waters rise

relentlessly, the spray not fresh

but threatening?

Before this rising tide we look wildly

everywhere for help,

everywhere for solace,

everywhere for a single rope

to safety—

though over time

our looking quiets

as we begin to drown.

And then we look for all those

we have lost,

both longing and resisting

their ghosted hands—

we fight to the last,

even weakened unto stillness,

for the self we’ve lost,

the life we once hoped for

the love we once wanted.

Who will come and find us,

hold us, love us—

who will stand with us out here?


	- Kalia Mussetter
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