I pray protection over us
Over women I haven’t met a lot in life

Joyful women

Well rested women

Women who sleep when they want to sleep and eat when they want to eat
Who laugh with their bellies full and cry and scream in the same breath with no apology

Women who unclench their teeth

And drop down into their hopes and dreams
And sink their jaws straight into the maw of the beast

I pray protection over us

Over women who cook their cake and eat it too

Fingers sticky with honey and cream
Eating the way we ate before colonizers called us dirty and uncivilized

Guarding the well from which so many drink

Licking and sucking our fingers clean with delight

I pray protection over us

Over my grandmother
Who my father proudly said
Would happily sit in a burning house if her husband asked her to

This is the line of women I come from
This is the level of self-sacrifice I reject
This is the burning house I am walking out of
And refusing to let my daughter inherit

I pray protection over us

Over the men who stand strong and protect
Cradling their darkness gently
Rocking it like a newborn baby
Nursing it with unflinching compassion
And standing tall like a lighthouse in treacherous waters
Bowing in reverence to the subtle softness that gives rise to life

I pray protection over us

Over my mother who cooked tirelessly day and night
A baby on her hip and a scream lodged at her throat
Serving us love one carefully rolled roti at a time

Devotion tinged with resentment
Or maybe resentment with a side of devotion

Faithfully kneading the dough with clenched fists
Until one day it just didn’t seem worth it anymore
Ripping open bags of frozen rotis
And placing a lifetime of pent-up rebellion on our plates

I pray protection over us

Over the ancestors we carry on our backs while standing on their shoulders
Carefully unbinding their shackles from my feet
Like little anklets that just don’t match my outfit anymore

Amplifying their joy like a growing sun coming up over the horizon

Giving my ancestors and my descendants rest
As I lay in the sun naked
And let its rays purify the river of my people

I pray protection over us

Over every single child on every single inch of this Earth that is unable to protect themselves

I pray protection over us

Over the men and women choosing love
Tenderly feeding each other carefully poured spoons of bittersweet accountability
Tending to the land right where we stand
Knowing the grass grows greener where we cultivate it

I pray protection over us

Over our precious human egos
Brazen child-like warriors
Courageously venturing into the wilderness trying to protect us time and time again

A thankless servant
Going ahead to scout the land
Returning with maps marked by every wrong turn
Getting lost repeatedly
Yet still remembering the way of liberation without receiving any of the glory

For even the mask longs to set the face free

I pray protection over us

People turned alive and inspired
By the tension between where we are and where we want to be

Trusting the uncertain depths
The birthing waves of the womb
As we walk in the dark
The path lit up only by the gaze of our eyes
There’s only one of us in the room with a billion different faces

So put your heart into it when you say

I pray protection over me