when we acknowledge the labor

* in gratitude to Elder Atum Azzahir *

there is work in living

in gathering, growing, harvesting, 
preparing, preserving,
weaving, building, washing,
in drinking and leaving waste
in carrying, raising,
protecting and healing
in listening, in deciding together,
in knowing how we impact one another 
and knowing how to walk in this truth

even grazing or catching prey,
or drinking sunlight and drawing 
minerals through thirsty rootlets, 
lives in careful calculation with 
storing enough sustenance to 
cushion generations  

there is no exemption
to the labor of maintaining life 

our celebrations, our rituals, 
the beauty making sacred cover of our bodies
making meaning of our humanness 

making home
where we lay our heads

is work

we walk the streets of a temple, a cult of worship,
sacrificing to the dream of another’s laboring hands
forced in keeping our lives, our high priests in uniform

laying hands on holsters 

anointing our denial, of resources 
of home, of safety, of culture, of future,
of muscle and mind, 
of sovereignty and earth
continuously taken

from bodies of African people
bodies labeled immigrant 
bodies cornered in poverty 

from native bodies and lineages
from land and her protectors

when you look down, at the hands 
holding your living, at the tools
crafting your life who do you see?
what was given freely? what are you
prepared to give back?

to go empty long enough
to remember each bartered devotion

to relearn to carry our own load