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 18th in our Democracy and Peril Series. This series will highlight hopeful aspects about our Democracy using various genres including poems, interviews, short stories, and articles about political events
hate is a brittle thing, splintered teeth, scraping the edges of breath, a wound pretending to be power, a hunger disguised as truth.
but hate has never woven a hymn strong enough to hold this land together. it does not know the song of hands that lift each other, that heal wounds while the earth remembers, teaches us to rise again.
i have seen what love can make. the soft violence of tenderness, the way it braids our stories into cloth, a quilt to wrap this nation’s bones.
hate is a thief who cannot bear light. it swallows suns, snuffs fires out, but it cannot survive the warmth of bodies who dare to believe in each other’s breath.
america, let us shed the skin of fear, let us unlearn the language of walls, return to the dirt where our ancestors planted dreams like seeds, knowing the future will grow
if we tend to the roots, if we sing to the soil.
love is the bridge that does not break, the stone carved with names of those who came before to make a country worth loving.
and kamala stands here, her hands open, refusing to hold what weighs us down, knowing that only in the surrender of hate can we find the power to build— to finally call this place our own.
©️MustafaSantiagoAli
#Poetry #PoemOfTheDay @harris_wins #ProudBlue #KamalaHarris #Resister #Vote #Love #Joy #YesWeKam