Collective Trauma Healing

(a poem dedicated to the collective healing of collective trauma)

Thousands of us, triggered—
re-membering what
we hoped to forget—
thousands and thousands of women
battered by the news,
unsheltered again, from all the times
it happened to us.
Thousands of women sickened
with post-traumatic stress
by the social disorder of misogyny.
Battered once more by watching
another accuser ridiculed.
Thousands of us experiencing
abuse again in our sacred bodies.

Our rage ignites us.
This is female anger, a mother’s rising-up
to defend what is tender,
bodies that belong to us.
Like a mother bear we rear and charge,
no time for argument, we engage
in order to protect!
Our female anger is fuel and then
we carefully convert
the flames that scorch and sear
to the steady burn of love.

Thousands and thousands and thousands of women
re-experiencing trauma
in our sacred bodies,
Thousands and thousands of women
rising to rage, to action.
Anger sparks a steeping, sleeping rage
that can destroy. And when we choose,
can be used to kindle Love.
This fiery rage we exchange,
at the fitting time,
for the steady fire of the hearth.
Ferocious female anger used for Love
will burn the world into a single throbbing Being
a planet with a heart of love.

                                    ©Susa Silvermarie 2018