Juneteenth Breakthrough Moon

New Moon Solstice, June 21, 2020

Juneteenth Breakthrough Moon

 

 

The sweet floral rind of mock orange

merging with drifting locust blossoms

before the river of life

before the swelling buds of 95 year old pear tree

before breakthrough

is hardest dark

 

It’s come to this again

new moon eclipse & systemic racism

fireflies & flash-bang grenades

peace-seeking human citizens

gathering on longest days of the year

to immolate ignorance

in a bonfire of breakthrough love

 

Bitterness, rage, guilt & shame

the ground of dandelion’s emergence

the ongoing, moment-after-moment

study of the self, renouncing

greed, hate & delusion

 

The breakthrough of mistakes

how awakening comes in confession

how it flows in actual relationship

how we suffer in a segregated world

medicine hidden in plain view

 

The breakthrough of empathy

the breakthrough of showing up repeatedly,

endlessly, for those we do not know yet

the breakthrough of fierce compassion

the breakthrough of creative means

the breakthrough of solidarity

the breakthrough of courageousness

the breakthrough of white men crying

the breakthrough of ceding space & power

to victims of patriarchy, colonialism, racism,

the breakthrough of antidoting capitalism

in all its alluring techno-plasticity

 

The solstice breakthrough

of re-committing to spirit relationship

with all beings

 

Chant your chant

with others,

however is right:

 

A-hum. The earth

is our mother

if we strive to breakthrough

we shall not want.

 

A-hum. And moon

above—when we do want

let us give to others first.

 

A-hum. Sun & stars

& tremulous human hearts:

may our breakthrough struggles

be homage-seed-works

sowing peace forward & back

for our ancestors, for our future kin

for all our relations, known & unknown,

represented by the infinite

above, below & all around.

 

A-hum. Love knows fear

& does not turn away.

 

A-hum.

 

In this body right now

we vow to our shared awakening—

the only breakthrough

that sings joy & sorrow true.

 

 

 

— Qayyum Johnson

 

Painting by Suiko McCall. She Who Caresses Uncertainty, 2020. Copper oxide, coffee, and red onion on paper, 6×8″. suiko.art