Some of Us

Some of Us
By: Salihah Aakil

I

In the morning some of us won’t be here. Some of us will be well on our way to a terra cotta sunset.

It’s not that we didn’t care to stay it’s just that we can’t live here any longer. Because some of us will die in the morning and the rest of us will finally know that home no longer means sanctuary. No longer means glowing, warm fire and a strong mother’s arms. In the morning some of us won’t be here, we’ll be trying to swim and not sink in the murky black waters that pull us downward. Dropped off a tree with a thick, coarse noose around our necks we will fall, downward. We will feel the tree behind us promising that it will make our bodies part of its roots and help us live on.

But thankfully most of us will refuse to die in fact we will insist that we can fly.

Winged things are the best of us they can always manage to occupy the space that lies between consciousness and dreaming, it's not a place meant for humans. But in the morning some of us will try to reach it.

And if we fail then we’ll always have the horizon to cushion our fall. Catch us in the crooks of it’s arms near the place where everything is burning.

In the morning some of us won’t be here and we’ll live on to tell the stories of the valiant warriors that dared to stay behind.

II

In the morning some of them won’t be here. Some of them will be somewhere between consciousness and dreaming, some of the will be well on their way to a better place and some, some will be long gone. In the morning none of us will cry because they moved on and we will see them again some day,

the sky won’t turn red when the sun sets some day.

So you and I hold out hope.

In the morning some of them will have to leave, some of them have a people to protect and they’ll promise to remember us. And with our hands on our hearts we swear to remember that they honor every promise.

In the morning some of us will die here but we’ll remember that some of our people learned to fly when the angel of death lent them it’s wings.

That’s when they were truly free.

Exploring the things we could only comprehend as stars but turned out to be shining miracles. Shimmering, spinning, glowing, shining miracles, and some of us will dance the way constellations do.

In the morning some of us will rise with the sun as warriors and champions and poets and we won’t forget how much we love morning time.

III

In the morning some of them won’t be here anymore and each morning to come a few more will leave. No one will mourn their lose and the fools that dared to stay behind and fight, no one will cry for. We the powerful ones won’t allow it.

In the morning we the powerful ones will drive them out and for the ones who promised their families that they were born and would die in this land. Well, we’ll remember that they honor every promise. Send them back to the hell from whence they came because this land is ours now!

And in the morning they’ll finally know it.

I

In the morning some of us we will live on.

II

In the morning all of us will succeed.

III

In the morning us powerful ones will think we can win.