New York City

Amanda! Ngawethu!

Like a shell of goodness surrounding our raw, fragile earth
It is built upon, added to, and altered in meaning
Every second a brave someone speaks up against the barbarity of prejudice
based on outside appearance

I ask you this

If you were looking at earth from a far distance
Would you see a shallow, insignificant nothing
No different from the trillions of tons of debris drifting in leaden blackness

Or would you find beauty within the protective shell that every life form known in
existence calls home
A shelter of color, culture, diversity, perspective, community, love.

Not a wall to hide under and to block out adventure and experience
But a filter, a reminder that the unknown is something to be welcomed,
celebrated and explored
Not to demolish and flatten

And what is the unknown
It is something different and unfamiliar

But if the world, if our world, is about perspective
Then the word ‘our’ should mean one whole
A rich unity of difference

But that unity will be ripped apart without acceptance, understanding and
equality.

Let this be a statement of power
Not over each other
Not the right to take over or criticize
But the power to fan the flame of contagion that is love

We are one, but we are different

And that difference is what should unite us

12 year-old Sophia DeMasi of Clifton Park wrote this poem after being inspired by Maya Angelou’s poem “His Day Is Done” about the passing of Nelson Mandela.

Read More Poems From the New York Almanack HERE.