(dedicated to the powerful roots of the living tree uncovered at HOMEFULNESS asphalt lifting day and all trees cut down because of devil-opment, gentriFUkation and capitalism across Pachamama)
Mama’s arms wrap around her children.
Mama’s arms hold up her babies,
her elders.
Her geraniums,
her beetles,
her weeds,
our dreams.
Mama’s arms weave through torn soil, broken glass, fractured rock, disrespected dirt.
Mama’s arms are strong like mama’s arms always are..
strong and tight,
rippled with veins full of the journeys of a thousand ancestors
and the stories of a thousand blades of grass.
I knelt there, next to her softness,
her strength, laying my hands on,
lifting up decades of asphalt,
dumped on her shoulders,
buried under more layers of plastic
and stucco
and concrete.
“It is just a stump
It needs to go”
The contractors scream in unison.
And yet, we continue to dig.
our fingers pull up chard after asphalt chard,
stone after stone.
And then her arms are revealed.
Taut brown muscles,
running through the ground,
holding onto the edges
defying real estate snakkkes and paper trail defined “property lines”,
for as far as you can see.
Holding us all up.
Wrapping us tightly in her dreams.
Encouraging us on,
blessing us with her presence.
She draws us in.
She helps us dream of the dream of HOMEFULNESS,
the liberation of land,
to house,
to school,
to care for all of us houseless families,
and children and elders,
to hold us
in her arms,
Whispering with wind spirit, “esta bien todos” (its all going to be ok) ….
“esta bien todos” (its all going to be ok)
No more displacement, government theft and institutional control.
Corporate landfills
and devil-opment,
legislated lies, false borders,
reservation removal
and genocidal gentrification.
Her arms reach into our broken hearts,
our wounded minds,
our tired shoulders,
our crying eyes.
She is solid, she Will not Be Moved.
She holds us closely.
We listen.