Tangled Roots

past and present

Do not forget, White folk, legions standing behind us, countless ancestors wishing us well, or not, depending on their politics, so very varied.

Some we can rightly be proud of. Loving souls made their marks. We stand on their shoulders. We feel the boots of others weighing us down.

Liberators and oppressors side by side, they speak of victories, iniquities, inequities and generosities. Sometimes the same souls

carry histories of both. Slave owners, champions of civil rights shedding blood, their own, or that of others, copiously.

Genocidal conquerors, scientists shedding light on life and other mysteries. Healers of wonder, perpetrators of abuse.

Somehow all of that not just behind us but within us, tumultuous. No wonder we are stressed, not always knowing what to do.

poor poor white folk straddling horns of paradox, devils and angels on wrestling mats. Don’t feel too sorry

for our sorry selves when all we need to do is listen very carefully to countless histories, our beating hearts choosing life or death, wrong or right.

~ Wry Welwood March 2021