We are members

of a wolf pack:

we are social animals

tied and lashed together

by the communal

and the personal

force called ‘belonging’.

 

This forces pulls

as hard as hunger

and as strongly

as the gritty desire

to survive

and to defy death.

 

Belonging is the

force invisible,

the strand,

human and divine,

that is as strong

as a spider’s web

and to which

we are all tethered

and bound together

in this condition

we call humanness.

 

Whether for good

for ill,

the need for belonging

pulls us in,

wraps us up

in its cocoon,

and finds its

visible expression

in family and community,

gangs and clubs,

worshippers and associations,

and all the human permutations

and combinations

strange and familiar,

shocking and

full of hope.

 

12/8/2016