hey!

You must believe that the world is going to change. You must believe that you can change it. Not alone, like some ruggedly individualist caped superhero, but as part of a mass movement, a superorganism, a shared heart, a moment of unity. You must trust that your actions matter, even when they don’t. You must remember that even if going to a protest or opening your doors to the desperate or giving up hyperpconsumption cannot alter the wider societal patterns if only you undertake to do so, that you are just one drop of water in an ocean. And it will change you. That is often the first step. You must believe that one day all the fossils will stay in the ground. You must believe that one day war will be a distant memory. You must believe that one day women will dance in the streets at night unafraid. You must believe that one day land will belong to everyone and queer liberation will be achieved. You must believe it. Even if your great-grandchildren do not live to see it done. Prefiguration is praxis. It’s therapy. It’s all we have.

something i wish i had realized earlier: you can write poems on the same subject more than once. you can write, paint, draw the same thing over and over if you want to. you can spend your whole life making art about oranges. i think i always felt this pressure to get it right the first time like i couldn’t go back and use that inspiration again. but you can. you can go back and revisit it. you can pick up the conversation again and again if you have more to say.