Love Rising: In Solidarity With Los Angeles Protesters

In response to the militarized reactions to the Los Angeles protests against ICE from the Trump Administration, The Catalyst launched a flash submission campaign to show solidarity. The following poem, "Love Rising", is from Nana Kay.

If empathy is now a sin,

Then maybe love begins in Hell—in torment

—before it can find its Heaven.

Maybe love was birthed by fire—by passion

—before it could be felt in reciprocity

by life’s daring champions

who were ready to discard their sanity

to feed its hearth.

If so, it was likely a spark,

before it was given purpose to breathe.

Love soon found itself in a carceral cage.

Like a fallen angel,

love was a prisoner of the war it waged.

But love can heal,

engineering new wings to stretch to its liberty,

to search for its higher purpose,

with no other plans,

than to rise, engulfing the world

in its amber flames.

“In order for humanity to have a future, we must continue to actively reject the tools of dehumanization.”

Nana Kay is an indie author of poetry and prose who describes herself as not-so-niche as she uses art and text to highlight the realities of human exploration and social dynamics.