We all have been under the pall,
all been asked
to choose a side and stick with it,
all felt sickened in the fear of losing,
or being found left out,
stranded in a faulty choice

There are rules of valiance –
rules of how to choose,
how to stand with courage,
how to fall with grace,
but one still faces
the daunting consequence,
dark underside of loss, of shame, of grief

And so consider:
Nothing else alive is ever asked
to make a choice like that.
It is plenty
for every living thing to answer
to it’s own calling – to grow
in its own place and time,
to be directed by its own essence
in every moment of its being

If that’s enough
for this wild strawberry,
holding raindrops as it blooms,
then it’s enough for us –
to make no choice, to take no sides,
let no division compromise our love.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 25, 2020