Somewhere
along the way  
in this human evolution
the animal kingdom-wide instinct
of self-preservation became conditional.

As I stand on the roadway with a heavy heart,
I feel this existential threshold beckon.

Yes, we can choose this life
in both directions.

The day the reverent gesture transmuted,
the ravenous species at the top
of the food chain reached
instead for devotion.

We re-defined starvation,
we re-defined God.

We will die for one another,
we began to say,
We will die
for God.

©Julia Daye