My sisters cry beneath a bigger, empty sky
And worlds away I hear them through
half-whispered text and pleadings:
"400,000 Dead in Sudan
Violence Continues"

Their tears continue
to fill the oceans between us
as time pulls us farther away.

Perhaps these great lands were separated
by our own neglect to care
for the other
brother
who is hurting.

My sisters are hurting. Their faters and men
have been slaughtered for the blackness of their skin.
Unspoken. The sin that has been planted
into the innocence of their daughters.

Of my daughters!

Hysteria raises in me
Raises oceans in me!

My sisters are crying.

Sr. Poetry 2005.