Muditha, a sunflower, sways in the wind
The soil contains the seed,
The seed contains the flower
I look out and I see that there is banyan tree behind the sunflower.

They remind me of the World
Or atleast of the world that my heart, O’tan, knows is possible
So I go there and start planting these trees and these flowers,
Sometimes I plant a sunflower, sometimes a banyan, sometimes a cedar
And yet sometimes I just tend the soil.

I go to sleep and I wake up to see the ruins in the west
The sunflower, the banyan, the cedar they are all there
And yet in the backdrop these fallen lives
Chains, guns and poison
It all seems the same.

Muditha means empathetic joy
That joy I feel when you are joyful
Hafiz says, “
“Even
After
All this time
The Sun never says to the Earth,
’You owe me’.
Look
What happens
With a love like that,
It lights the whole sky.”

So I look towards the sky and I can clearly see the stars
That is where my people live
The backdrop of the stars is the dark, the mystery
You, me and those sunflowers all see the light
There are no ruins to distract me anymore
So I walk in the starlight, north, orienting home.

Muditha is where my hope survives
I can see those sunflowers growing in my heart
How long could I see those stars
My eyes open up to see the world engulfed in flames
I remember seeing children in those spaces
Now I see flames as high as my gaze could go, and as deep as my eyes could see.

Everything that once lived died
I want to just put my hands in the soil
But there is no soil only ash and I want to rest.

In the dream I saw a Deer
So I will wait for that grass to grow
For the seed once again to become a sapling.
I will wait when I can water these plants
And feel them greet me
I will wait for the song
And wait for that singer to sing.

I will let the deer in my dreams teach me how to sing
This song of hope, and the song of birth
The song that is immeasurable
And the song that lives where my people live!