what leaders forget of love and curiosity,
what is still here, but can be destroyed carelessly.
there is love still in loss, there is joy yet in grief
words given for their bravery, taken for their ease
hidden, distorted, compliant for convenience
wanting what will least look toward life
but speaking spin, keeping structures opaque.
since we can now taste the knowing, we will win
at hearts reckoning in notions of remembering
who lives here, whose roots go deeper,
to a time of community with flowers,
unwilling to cast shadows on shared thriving.