How To Be Gentle, to My Son in the Past

after Ocean Vuong

Wisdom often arrives as a warning, said a man
who learned to move from being unseen to an
unstuck seed, pollinating.

So here is my choice, the choice of letting
you know that it is always okay to not be
okay, to feel the weight.

When questions arrive at the door, knocking
at the jutting knob of presence, at the portal
of loss, seek healing.

The God of my world will always have your
back, she speaks much, asks often, waits too
for your participation.

The power of receiving, from yourself and
others are unlimited in you, so hold it close
like the moon, its whorls.

Find stories, repeat them, and bring people in
to them, because stories will hold worlds
together, stitch-craft.

I don’t know today what facts of your life
will be, I don’t know all hows and whens
I do know why.

I know why you are here; it is because you
will make way for strength, a straight back
pulling you upwards, genetics.

What others will call problems, you will call
opportunity, just like at birth, you arrived in
full gusto, waves unclenched.

Holding to this thought, I save this letter for
the day, or time when you pick a torch, gaze
upwards, scream as you look, farther
than where you stand
tapping the ripe night
on its wet shoulder.

Kashiana Singh (http://www.kashianasingh.com/) calls herself a work practitioner and embodies the essence of her TEDx talk, Work as Worship, into her every day and carries her various geopolitical homes within her poetry.

Featured image:  Liv Bruce / Unsplash