Our Missing Hearts

The world is quiet here

Silence engulfs the land till someone tries to break it

Loneliness is around here

Not just because we are alone

Legacy is profound here

Remembering names

Of those who were taken away from us

Spelt with seeds we carry in our hearts.

Silently.

One’s resilience is a weapon–

Not to harm

But to live.

The red of our backyard flame being the only thing holding us together.

Beneath our resilience, our hearts ignite

Letters stamped with approval

The bright red ink not quite a sign of hope

But of another day

We carry this ink in our hearts

Use it to stamp our own letters with love

A sign indicating whoever received it, was remembered another day

We say ‘I love you’

Before every farewell and after every hello

Because we never know when we won’t have the chance to

Our resilience is keeping us back

We endure it while we can

Our legacy lives in our words

But our words are forbidden.

So we write

Red ink so bright and so wicked

Derived either from the brightest of roses

Or darkest of bloods

Does the red in our flag scare you?

Or is it the fear that the red, white and blue will stop scaring us?

Continuing to distribute our seeds

Through this vacuum with no voice

Like feathers distributed through the wind

They look at us with disgust

Look at where our hearts are

Surprised to not see us dripping with blood of the problems we created

Sometimes it's not black and white–

It's red and red.

We watch as our dreams stay put

While we get pushed farther and farther

Away from our path

Away from what we created for ourselves

Our screams don't benefit us anymore

Hitting like ripping currents out on sea

Our silence is all we have now

So we teach our children what we learnt through the wickedest of ways

Don't scream when they take you

The world is quiet here