Good News Sleeps till Noon
Laughing Buddha shed a river of tears
today.
Allah roared in silent agony. Kali pounded her many fists. Yahweh's
disciples whispered his name.
Nostrodomous looked upon us bowing his head in humility.
A generation lost.
A nation, a world, a universe stared in dismay.
My tarnished face stood still waiting for the fear to subside
As I watched my mother splintered and decimated to dust.
I, still standing, frozen like my heart, remembering how a city
dusted off an ambitious youth, turning her into a woman
With enough hope for the whole world.
Mourning her wounds,
Mourning the hatred that befell us all that morning.
Mourning my mother, my friend, my heart.
I watched in dismay for a generation of lost souls that would
struggle
Out of this dusty pit of terror.
Then, she whispered to me from a million miles away,
"Stay strong little one, for in you my memories sleep.
And on that day when you are called to speak, remind them,
Of all the glory the human spirit hides.
Remind them of a love and a hope that surpasses the wildest of
dreams.
Tell my children I am still here.
As I taught you to be strong,
As I taught you to have hope when all was bleak,
Grab your neighbor's hand
And speak these words I have given you,
I will rise once more,
The phoenix from these flames
To teach your children to warm fridged souls,
To teach them as I have taught you.
Here, in our darkest hour,
I pass to you my wisdom."
She whispered,
"Faith is only a star's beam away."
-Nycol Thompson* 2001
Biography Statement:
I went to New York at eighteen to
find myself. What I found was a heart that beat beneath my feet,
a soul that bellowed and sang between the cracks in the sidewalk.
I quickly knew New York as, "She," and "Her," my mother.
"She" pointed me this way and that till I eventually ran myself
on a side street downtown. "She" gave me the courage to reach
out and take my own hand. I laughed, I cried, I spat in anger,
and for the first time, I loved. All this as I grew into womanhood
with the guidance of the greatest teacher I have ever had the
honor of knowing.
My only wish for for this New York
is for the world to know New York with their hearts as I have,
for the world to know her as OUR tough love mother.
Nycol Thompson, 29, NYC
|
 |
|
|
