The Clock is Ticking - A Spoken Word Performance By Hollis

The Clock is Ticking

By Hollis

They say we’ve never been so divided.
We know that this is by design.
The fissures and the scatter,
Our attention, our heartstrings
Pulled tight until we are strung out,
Circulation pinched
Momentum tangled
They say, do not give into despair
Do not be swallowed by the overwhelm
But the wider our eyes open,
The more helpless it all seems
Maybe I’m not supposed to say all that
Maybe I should speak more boldly than I feel
Say that I believe wholeheartedly that the arc of justice bends,
Despite it all,
Towards a place where we can all be free
But if I’m being real
I’m done with trusting it’s all going to work itself out,
Done hoping for the cinematic ending
Where everything comes up roses in the end
As we watch the world backslide,
As the forests burn,
As more and more residents of our city flee,
Or find what little shelter they can
Under overpasses and folded into stoops,
As our newspapers wilt,
As our schools struggle to stay afloat,
As the static and the soundbites drown out,
The conversations that so desperately need to be had,
Being alive at the end of this decade is a special type of bewilderment
Our hands thrown in the air,
Unable to make sense of anything
Can feel like a type of atrophy
Can feel like a type of defeat
But if we were truly defeated
If there was truly no hope left
We wouldn’t find ourselves here, today, right?
Tearing ourselves away from the screens and the cynicism
Blinking ourselves into the present
Here, today, to grapple with what truly is,
Away from the comfort of our own homes, our own little worlds
To confront the urgency, the ugly truths,
How we all, in our ways, have been complicit
How we all, in our ways, have work to do
We are here today to say yes, there is chaos
Yes, it’s a lot to grapple with 

Yes, there is so much unruly terrain to navigate
And the road is not anywhere near paved,
Yes, the clock is ticking
Each second strikes the air
And when we are rigid, or afraid,
each tick can make us flinch
Can feel ominous, like time is running out
But time is not linear
Time is not a hard stop, a buzzer, a pencils down
Time is a mother
Cradling history
Breathing life into the future
All of us her children in the now
Time is a cycle, time is a circle,
Time is the steady pulse
Rounding the edges
Reminding us to come back to center
To press two fingers to our wrists
And feel the rhythm we all share
Time is not linear
And neither are we
We are not the drawn lines
We are not the either or, the in or out,
We are not absolutes
Time is relative
We are relatives
Miraculously together in this moment
Connected in continuum
Our cells singing out
The walls of this hall resonating
With the richness of the past
And the promise of what can be
Promise is not a declaration or a one-time donation
Promise is a verb
Promise is a muscle
It is us looking each other in the eye
Looking ourselves in the mirror
Leaving our pride and baggage
Our hot takes and our resentments
Our aloof “should haves”, all the way at the door
Humbling ourselves to know
We are each but one strand in what we are all weaving
And our responsibility is to hold one another
To truly understand that we are so deeply dependent on one another 

To truly believe and know to be fact that none of us are well
Until all of us are well
None of us thrive
Until all of us thrive
None of us are free
Until all of us are free
This architecture takes all of us
The art of co-creation
And we have all we need
Not point A to point B
But building bonds
Forging faith
Daring to be honest with ourselves
And to truly trust one another
The clock is ticking
May it soften us
And also strike the match within
May we bonfire our resolve
So that it burns brightest
When it’s coldest
Sharing warmth between each other
When the world is the most cruel
The clock is ticking
May it be the drumbeat
To our movement,
May it embolden us
To embrace
The urgency, the disparity
May it strengthen
Our commitment, our dedication to one another
Dissolving the lines between us
The clock is ticking
May we shift forward
Into a braver space
Into a better future
May we honor all we have
May we honor where we call home
And know we all belong
The clock is ticking,
Doing nothing
Is not an option
So we opt in
We say yes
We know we, together, can do this
The clock is ticking
The time is now