Mustafa Santiago Ali
Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali is the Executive Vice President of Conservation & Justice for the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), former Interim Chief of Programs at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), and Instructor at American University. He is the Founder and CEO of Revitalization Strategies. He also serves as a commissioner for The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS). He is an award-winning writer and poet focused on social justice. Dr. Ali is frequently seen on television, including appearances on MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, VICE, FUSE, BET, National Geographic, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, and Democracy NOW! Mustafa is also a regular guest on Roland Martin Unfiltered, Black News Channel, Tavis Smiley Show, The Dean Obeidallah Show, and many others…
Editor's Note: This poem is the 90th in our Democracy and Hope Series. This series will highlight hopeful aspects about our Democracy using various genres including poems, interviews, short stories, and articles about political events
The air is thick with yesterday’s mourning, a sun too bold, too brazen, too scorning. How do you breathe when the lungs of the city collapse? When houses melt into rivers of wax, and hope stumbles on the cracks of what once was a street, now a tomb?
How do we heal when the flames keep singing? Their melody is chaos, their harmony stinging. Mothers rocking in the rhythm of grief, their prayers turning to smoke, each word a thief stealing silence from the night.
The displaced wander like question marks, bodies bent by the weight of maybe. Maybe home will find us again. Maybe the ash will settle before the politicians do.
And the insurance man sends his “regrets,” licked envelopes like matches. Every denial another kindling piece, feeding a fire that isn’t nature’s blame but ours.
Still, we write poems in the dirt where the garden used to be. Still, we draw maps in the soot, searching for somewhere to call free.
The sky may choke, the ground may ache, but we are seeds with stubborn roots. Even as the fires rage, we learn how to bloom through the burn.
©️MustafaSantiagoAli
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