We were terminally
out of touch
before no touch was enforced.

The other left,
and the self remained.
Sitting in our own thoughts,
silence can be so loud –
when there’s no white noise to cancel it.
And loneliness, so cruel
until we surrender to it.
In solitude, words can escape us,
but our heartbeat won’t.
Rāga resides there.Salutations to the guides who
helped bring back our sight.
It takes courage to look in the mirror
when there’s no human obligation.
What’s your reflection saying?
Do you see your soul
or another’s soles?
Fuck the colonial calculation
of melanin in DNA.
Our ancestry has a story to tell
expanding beyond what is currently heard.

Meditations bring forward one’s
deepest knowledge,
revealing our naked selves
To one’s self.
For truth to reconcile
and become our sovereignty.
That gives us fortitude,
and liberates the self from one’s own cage.
That’s where I ruptured.
I wash this skin with soap only to fit in
lands they colonized?
No.I am Mother Earth,
A child of the Ten.
That dove flies me closer to one piece.
I speak now to forever help you find your peace.
My children will live in the Canada
that’s in our hearts,
not the Canada that ain’t in yours.
That’s where Newest will be.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Raji Kaur Aujla