from the breath I breathe,

that your God’s balloons

do breathe your breath,

this body of some body’s womb

from another body’s womb,

from eons back,

from tomb-to-tomb,

till the time when we

were same body,

for as long as you are feeling

of this world, as long as you are

knowing of this place,

as long as you are erect,

flesh and blood, so we shall see

Thee in Thee, giving our good

Dignity. That dignity be good,

our remembrance of why—

which is not merely to live,

but to celebrate life.

Dignity is to see all as dignified,

that why not the sewage pumps of

Earth be as regal as the thrown?

Yet we bow before one and

bowel before the other.

Our brother is

trashed working

the slop house,

forsaken our adornments,

our finest pigments

and perfumes. We stripped

ourselves our dignity.

Worse, the theft

from one is fear

of theft for all.

So to all, dignify.

To all roles, all lives,

all circumstance. Give to all

our highest decorum, gilding

equally the engine room and

the captain’s bridge, saluting

equally the privates and

the majors. Else, in time,

we bow to none. For all

must be for one and

one must be for all or

none will be for all for

none will be for one.

In end,

to give dignity is

to know dignity, and

to know dignity is first

to have been given.

So for as long as you take breath

from the breath I breathe,

I give to you my heirs,

my dignity.

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