My Lovers

I want

to redefine

the word

Lover.

I don't want

this word

to be exclusive.

To be reserved

for the person

I share

sacred

sexual union with.

Sex isn’t the union

My soul is starving for.

I want

this word

to include

all of you.

My friends,
are my lovers!
With them
I explore
the depths of
my mind,
my heart,
my wounds,
my soul.

My friends are my family,

My family are my friends.

Together we laugh,

Sup,

Dance,

Cry,

And Sing.

My Students
My Teachers
My Healers
My Wounders
are all my lovers!
With them
I explore
the depths of
my capacity,
my compassion,
my resilience,
my brilliance,
my service,
my lack,

my need,
my insecurities,
my fears,
my weakness,
my strengths,

My triumphs,

My game.

The strangers

on the street
are my lovers!
With them,
I meet the faces of me I cannot see,

I meet the me you see,

I see myself in thee.
In the eyes of their suffering
I see my own smaller pain.
In the cracks in their hands,
and the dirt under their nails,
I see my experience,
my privilege,
my blame.
In their pieced together homes
made of cardboard
tarp
and earth,
I see my bounty,
I see my shame.

In the crafts they’ve arted

From the trash we discarded

I see my own

Blocked creation.

In the smile the give me so freely
I find my own humility
I find my own transparency.

I find the truth behind my name.

So my dream is
we all become great lovers,
we all become great humans,

Being humans,
and when we see

in one another,
some blame,

we are don’t separate,
but instead we see

how we are the same.