I want to see what I
haven’t seen before, and
I don’t mean “The Alps” or 
“The Eiffel Tower.”  I want to
see things that matter.
I want to see through the 
eyes of my more colorful brothers
and sisters, to find out what life
has really been like for them. 
I’m vanilla white, sunburn-prone,
and privileged for no good reason. 
I want to know what people have 
suffered and what I can do to
make it better.   Hope is power. 
I need to see a way 
forward, a clue, a shred of what
might be if we dream, if we 
dare to see maybe and perhaps
as mighty and in the end
something worth living for.
To see that, I need
to listen. To hear hope I need 
to see. You, me, and everyone
are a family in a whole new way, 
use consonants to create space 
and vowels to punch holes in 
our sentences.  We speak
because words are power. We 
listen because it’s electric. It
brings life to our lonely sentences
and makes humans out of all
our shattered ways.