On Be[Longing]

Brother sister
friend and militant
lover
radical extremist,
an essential need
or existential threat
a question of empathy
or detachment.
 
A thief who steals your heart
your country
your culture.
The belief in a lawless system
of trending posts and tweets.
Oh, the outrage and endless debates…
 
In search of parallel truths
with the warmth of unanimity,
in the quest for equality
the vanishing point
of injustice.
 
For nation building and community
or hustled into conformity
to spread deception and conspiracy
without the bloody knife.
 
Darwinian
like hunger and thirst
when instinct loses control.
 
Subvert or submit
to a higher authority
or lower expectations.
 
Behind the cloak of approval
origins of ancient dissent,
naked under layers of appearances
exposed by empty rhetoric.
 
To shelter in the arms of your beloved
flooded with tenderness.
To arm the shelter for combat
locked and loaded with hostilities,
real or imagined.
 
Of the longing
to belong
that unites and divides,
coalescing opposing forces.
 
A matter of relevance?
A loss of innocence?
A question of identity?
 
For honor and respect.
To further the narrative.
A source of frailty or strength?