when conflict leaves your home uninhabitable:
pledge allegiance to the nectar in your own veins,
to the sweetness of your disparate pieces,
to crumbling, and then—
to settling as dust does.
pledge allegiance to the revolutionary softness
of the skin on the backs of your hands—
to your hands that have been given more names than the ocean,
to each name as transient as the last.
this oath is the subtle alchemy
of returning.
by safiyah