Murmurations: A Summer Solstice Spell

Wartime

frolic
cavort across
fields that hold
labor and bones
lovemaking and laughter
and each of you
black with joy

jit and jive
the frontmost line
is everywhere now
but we still alive
we carry our dead
in our eyes
crying out: it鈥檚 summer

find the bullet beat
percussive pace
duck and cover
exhausted pulse
flinging forward
only your softest
parts

relinquish ahistorical safety
hysterical corrections
and hyperbolic declarations
all wars are internal
but remember
summer is a good time
for revolution

so mirrordance
see the light
in your own eyes
on the longest day
heal, or go down swinging
swallow your own shadow
and, whole, rejoice

adrienne maree brown is a writer, editor, activist, social justice facilitator, coach, speaker, and doula. Her books include Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds, Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, which she wrote and edited, and Octavia鈥檚 Brood: Science Fiction Stories From Social Justice Movements, which she co-edited. They are a YES! contributor, and the creator of YES!鈥檚 exclusive collective column 鈥淢urmurations.鈥�