Roy Herndon Smith
for Dorothee Sölle (1929-2003; the source of repeating dumbly) and Ursula LeGuin (1929-2018; the source of the story of Arha, the First Priestess of the Nameless Ones)
The injury we do to another
we do to ourselves.
Repeat it dumbly.
The injury we do to another
we do to ourselves.
Repeat it dumbly.
Infants know it.
When one cries, all cry.
Repeat it dumbly.
We forget it.
We think we do not feel another’s cry.
We think we do not cry.
When Arha, the First Priestess of the Nameless Ones,
had, as was required, the prisoners killed by starvation and thirst,
she became ill.
Death freed the prisoners but not her.
The injury she did to her prisoners
was the nameless darkness that ate her life from the inside.
She was the First Priestess of the Nameless Ones.
Repeat it dumbly,
lest we forget.
The injury we do to another
we do to ourselves.
dust 