Oh my dear sisters,
What is happening to our children?

From US border camps,
to the beaches of Gaza,
Forgotten in parked cars,
Kidnapped from school in Africa,
Gunned down by police on our own city streets,
Trafficked and enslaved, conscripted and bombed…

Oh my dear mothers,
Don’t you hear the cries of our children?

We are the ones wired to care together for them
like a herd of elephant aunties.
Our milk letting down
at the sound of babies crying,
any baby crying ignites that ancient, feminine instinct,
that heat in our breasts
that compels us to suckle and safeguard.

Oh dear grandmothers,
you must heed these cries of our babies.

Is it not our charge to protect them,
to respond to danger to our cubs,
snarling fierce as mama wolves,
roaring powerful as mama bears,
fearless tigresses?

Oh dear sisters,
hear the cries of our sweet children..

Like a pride of lionesses
we must rise up,
driven by the urgency of survival of our species
we must rise up
driven by the very nature of the feminine
we must rise up
as one fearless force
to fend off those
who care not
for children.