Dignity | Poem

A way of living.

For as long as you take breath 
from the breath I breathe,
that your God’s balloons 
do breathe your breath,
this body of some body’s womb
from another body’s womb,
from eons back,
from tomb-to-tomb,
till the time when we 
were same body,
for as long as you are feeling 
of this world, as long as you are 
knowing of this place,
as long as you are erect, 
flesh and blood, so we shall see 
Thee in Thee, giving our good 
Dignity. That dignity be good,
our remembrance of why—
which is not merely to live, 
but to celebrate life. 

Dignity is to see all as dignified,
that why not the sewage pumps of 
Earth be as regal as the thrown?
Yet we bow before one and 
bowel before the other. 

Our brother is 
trashed working 
the slop house, 
forsaken our adornments, 
our finest pigments
and perfumes. We stripped 
ourselves our dignity.  

Worse, the theft 
from one is fear 
of theft for all. 

So to all, dignify. 
To all roles, all lives,
all circumstance. Give to all
our highest decorum, gilding 
equally the engine room and
the captain’s bridge, saluting
equally the privates and
the majors. Else, in time, 
we bow to none. For all
must be for one and 
one must be for all or 
none will be for all for 
none will be for one.  
 
In end,
to give dignity is 
to know dignity, and 
to know dignity is first
to have been given. 

So for as long as you take breath 
from the breath I breathe,
I give to you my heirs,
my dignity.