<div dir="ltr"><span id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-77fa4b6f-7fff-cfa6-70de-d3652c21b10d"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Against Cruelty</span></p>by Joan Myles</span><div><span><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The insurrection glued my eyes open </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Lit the lamp of my veins in the frozen light </span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">I watched Sheol swaying in air screaming white fire</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">3000 miles away and all around me isolated </span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Now they hand out machine guns and corrupted flags</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Readying to seize our books to claim our bodies </span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">because there’s no vaccine against cruelty</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">But there is always the goodness I once found </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">inscribed on a scroll tucked inside a box of Kix</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">and the sacred whisper woven loosely </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">into human hair  like a crown of flowering thorns</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">And there is always longing</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">amid eternal tides of stardust and exhaustion </span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">and if we can keep anything let it be these</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:2.4;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Verdana;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">sweet and sad and urgent leading us to a place of deep dark peace</span></p><br></span></div></div>