The innocence of the world

Streaks of light
and the fact of innocence
shine clear when all the lies are gone

And people find it’s not too late
for trading in their hard bought worldly views,
the savvy of the turning cogs of wickedness,
and rolling with them to come out on top

Far better the transparency
of simple justice, seeing the worth
of every living being,
the recognition
of how we’re blessed by each of us,
the loss to all of throwing anyone away

It isn’t a hard sell, for everyone
has longed for this. Each one who takes a stand
helps bring it forth –
the innocence defining each of us,
truth that’s been waiting for us all along.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 8, 2023

House of Justice

The rooms of this house  –
I consecrate them  –
Let them be fully filled
with harmony. Let the rhythm
of Soul so saturate the spaces
that everything within reverberates

This is a house of justice,
so all who enter here
are seen for what they truly are.
There is no frequency here
for false representation  –
it finds no chord and so is left in silence

And even if your truest tone
has so far never sounded,
it will ring out here,
so true are the harmonics  –
if you didn’t know  before,
you will know now,
and so will all the dwellers
in the house.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 9, 2021

Acquitted

So what’s real about this
(where are all your accusers?)
is the innocence
that has always clothed you
and that innocence
makes you innocent
even as the snapping jaws of guilt
try to close about you

They’re just made of dust
so they can’t do anything —
can’t stop you from being
your noble self,
cant stop you
from being free.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 28, 2018

Escaping White Privilege

I’m tired of looking
round and round
in this prescribed place
of acceptability —
I’ve searched every corner
and some of what I want and need
is missing

And though I’ve been told
that my partition
is the one most everyone
wishes they were born in,
I’m not so sure

I’m thinking
I need to get out of here,
even if it means
giving up the stuff I’m told
others would most envy

I have a notion kindness
may be my ticket,
so I will prize it
and seek out every chance
to exercise it

I will build up the core
of my kindness
until it can do
all kinds of acrobatic things
or at least till it reaches
over the divide.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 22, 2017

Matters

Black lives matter,
and fair contribution matters,
and mending and cleaning and sorting matter

And underneath all the matter
is the current of Spirit
that doesn’t even need to get involved
in all that tortuous stitching,
full, as it is, of its own surging intricacy,
its fractally multiplying joy,
its amnesty for all.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 15, 2017

photo by Edward Mulhern

Rock Fall

All those who have been wronged
for so many years, even generations,
lift up their voices. It is their time
to howl and howl. It is their time
to be heard.

The hearing is like
the tiny infiltration of water
into the face of rock.
It will bide its time —
it does not need to be a multitude.

In the mundane roll of seasons
it will freeze, and that expansion
will crack the rock,
and in the thaw
it will sink down deeper,
and one year suddenly
a whole cliff side may shear off
and fall, and bounce, and shatter.

Hear these ones who howl
for the whole mountain
is coming down.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 24, 2017

The Rule of Hearts

field of daisies

Let us not sleep.
Justice comes, not by hoping for it,
not by peaking periodically
from the cynicism we retreated to
last time our hopes were dashed

Justice doesn’t come by waiting for it,
for some last straw to topple
the systems that have ruled us for so long

In this moment, I claim my power.
My heart is humble in this, but still insistent.
It knows that every heart
has always yearned the same,
it knows that yearning leads to fulfillment.

This is the rule of hearts,
and when everything else is silent,
they will be known to be
the only ones that ever sing,
and justice is their harmonizing —
when they join together,
we will win.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 17, 2016