Call Us What We Carry

by Amanda Gorman

We added a thousand false steps To our walk tracker today Because every step we’ve taken Has required more than we had to give.

Anxiety is a living body, Poised beside us like a shadow. It is the last creature standing, The only beast who loves us Enough to stay.

We are walking beside our ancestors, Their drums roar for us, Their feet stomp at our life. There is power in being robbed & still choosing to dance.

We might not be fully sure of all that we are. & yet we have endured all that we were.

Since the world is round, There is no way to walk away From each other, for even then We are coming back together.

Lost as we feel, there is no better Compass than compassion. We find ourselves not by being The most seen, but the most seeing.

Life is not what is promised, But what is sought. These bones, not what is found, But what we’ve fought. Our truth, not what we said, But what we thought. Our lesson, all we have taken & all we have brought.

It’s said that ignorance is bliss. Ignorance is this: a vine that sneaks up a tree, killing not by poison, but by blocking out its light.

If we are brought any closure, it will be in us being brought closer.

But this doesn’t mean we’re striving to form a union that is perfect. We are striving to forge our union with purpose, To compose a country committed To all cultures, colors, characters, And conditions of man. And so we lift our gazes not To what stands between us, But what stands before us. We close the divide, Because we know to put Our future first, we must first Put our differences aside. We lay down our arms So that we can reach our arms out to one another. We seek harm to none, and harmony for all.