For all the women and the men supporting them; for all those who get up every morning and despite all odds make it through the day surviving, shining, rising. For the friends and families of Sara, Mahsa, Noor, Qurat Ul Ain and of the countless nameless others like them: your grit is everything.

When it’s been tormenting
Day after day. With no respite
And I just don’t have it in me to fight 
To battle on 
When I’m war-weary 
When there is no end in sight 
And all I want to do 
Is sit in a dark room 
And let its coolness shroud me 
Until I can feel the hair
Stand on my skin. There 
Is suddenly more to the day
Than the heaviness in my heart 
And the endlessness of the grey
That has been flowing, gripping choking me 
Keeping me doubled down on my knees 
There’s more beyond that malevolent mien
Images, memories driving me insane

Now - 

Now there is also something 
On the outside of me 
A little chill 
A little photo on the window sill 
Both pull at me in different ways 
One makes icicles 
To sear through 
The magma that has congealed 
Inside of me 
The other makes my blood flow warm 
Streaming, coursing through my veins 
Reminding me that I am home 
My spirit and my fortitude 
Still cloak my shoulders 
Strong and true 
I sit up straight 
As they reverberate 
Through every atom of my being 
And they chant 
An age old song 
Of others like me 
Who’ve fought on
Their hearts fused forever 
With the loved ones they’ve lost
And I know 
That I’m not wielding my sword alone