Convergence Poem by Cheryl L. DaytecYañgot

Our pains are woven from the same thread
We suffer -each in our worlds
The screams that come from our lungs
Are the same tortured lamentations
Our songs have the same lyrics
the same melody
I listen to your story
The face of your enemy blurs into the face of mine
As if there is no distinction

We cup our palms to catch our blood
Flowing into extinction
From the mountains hemorrhaging with greed
From the deep wounds of the land
Cradling our ancestors’ bones
The lands that have owned us
Have fallen into the hands of our oppressors
They now own us
Their hands eager to obliterate
the footprints of our ancestors
on the rivers, on the lakes, on the springs

My world blurs into your world
Until they form one world
Our worlds separated by oceans and mountains
United by the same triumphs and tragedies
We chase separate but same roads
To generations thousands of years from now
Away from extinction

Even across the distance
We touch one another’s hands
We share our warmth, our strength
Our combined power can not be blown away
like a formidable rock, resilient

In our triumphs, in our defeats,

We are one.

(Dedicated to the indigenous peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh)