Blessed are we, betrayers of all counterfeit kinships,
whose estrangement moves us toward an ancient & urgent togetherness.
May we organize our ghosts to join us in the streets.

May we wrench our shimmering multiplicities
from the maw of militarism.
May new homes be formed between our marching shoulders.

And may we bless the Signal threads & the spokes councils & care teams!
Bless the interest form, the QR code, the recruitment spreadsheet
with its infinite containers brimming with affinities

that never existed until now! Bless all the sacred architectures we craft
to catch our people, how our efforts stretch
across time & space to weave a place for our folks to land in.

Bless all the mundane work it takes for us to be dangerous together.
Bless calling our friends & family to ask, “Do you want to get involved?”
Bless what we really mean:

Do you want to build a new world together? Do you want to build a new ‘us’ together?
Bless how we refuse to leave the sterile offices
of those who could stop a genocide but are choosing not to.

Bless the children & grandchildren of refugees
scaling the walls of warships to stop weapons from leaving the port.
Bless how we link arms & lock ourselves to buildings

to forge a chain that pulls us closer to the world we need.
May we win real safety this time.
May we create new kinships along the way—

kinships that can outlive all forms of supremacy.
May we reach a belonging our ancestors never got to have.
And may we call out to those who are not yet with us:

If your heart is broken, may that breakage be a doorway.
There is a family waiting for you
called a movement.

—

Shelby Handler is a writer, translator, and organizer with Jewish Voice for Peace. Recent work has appeared in Poetry, The Iowa Review, Redivider, The Journal, Black Warrior Review Online, among others.