UM

What brought you here?

To this place

What strange series of events

An incalculable amount of decisions

Not just yours

 

We sit across from one another

A short grasp of space between

Yet our lives couldn’t be more different

We occupy the same space now

Our breath mingling

I inhale your co2

You inhale mine

 

I know your story

It’s my job to know your story

Certain aspects of it I suppose

But I care, as much as a voyeur can

I need to understand

I want to understand

You are only too willing

No one had listened before

Especially in a group of your own

You share the same tale

 

I’m different

New

But the same as those who ignored you before

Do you even care about my motivation?

It’s so unusual to you

You need to get the recognition

The understanding

The warmth of a soft word

 

You tell me about the wounds

Mental first, then physical

Then back to mental

Your story like the ricochet of the bullet

That killed your mother

 

Fuck, I couldn’t even begin…

But I need to keep my own composure

I’m the professional after all

You go on

And on

And on

Multiple layers

Each as sad and pain filled as the next

 

Then you stop

A sentence trails off in a language I’m unable to reach

My colleague laughs

A shared joke in the midst of it all

I find out later it was about tribes

Her tribe attacked yours

A raid over cattle, oil, money... always money

Men always men 

 

I'm hooked at this point

You are on me too

You say you pray for me 

I pray for you too 

Yours to god

Mine to reason

 

I don't enjoy it as such 

But find it inspriring 

Your suffering a way for me to feel 

Like I'm part of the solution

the definition of priviledge

 

You tell me, I'm the only one 

To get it

To get you

I've looked into your eyes and despite the barriers 

Of language and pain

I understand