When Courage Is Mutual

When in 1980s Northern Ireland
the RUC, the police force at the time,
permitted themselves to be privately addressed
at a meeting addressing domestic violence
towards lesbians, and women accused of being lesbian
who because the accusation had their children
taken from them, one wonders who was the braver?

The lesbian speaker who spoke against
the interpretations of law that were biased
against anyone not identifying with the supine
'christian' majority, who took seriously
what their minority identity meant?

Or the police who listened, and because none of them
would speak their question in front of other officers
were encouraged to anonymously put their questions
in a hat for the speaker to answer?

Who showed most courage does not matter,
the one who showed most showed it for the other.

In this meeting, and many others since,
showing up to listen is what makes the difference.

The Commonplace And The Valuable

When the words we have
to say what we mean
are all commonplace
that should not suggest
that what we mean
should be disregarded
in the longer term. 

Optimum Distance For Clarity

When a relationship works well it will surprise us,
particularly as it changes. When in a lasting relationship
we will find that we have to think harder
where it leaves us afresh, when as two people
we find ourselves placed further or nearer
then previous, by circumstance.
The longer united the more than we have
to practice listening, listen harder than when we started.
And with more than two people involved with each other,
long term, the harder it becomes to listen consistently
and to keep thinking 'Forward.... '.