For each of you

Be who you are and will be / learn to cherish / that boisterous Black Angel that drives you / up one day and down another / protecting the place where your power rises / running like hot blood / from the same sourse / as you pain. // When you are hungry / learn to eat / whatever sustains you / until morning / but do not misled by details / simply because you live them. // Do not let your head deny / your hands / any memory of what passes through them / not your eyes / nor your heart / everything can be used / except what is wasteful / (you will need / to remember this when you are accused of destruction.) / Even when they are dangerous examine the heart of those machines you hate / before you discard them / and never mourn the lack of their power / lest you be condemned / to relieve them. / If you do not learn to hate / you will never be lonely / enough / to love easily / nor will you always be brave / although it does not grow any easier // Do not pretend to convenient beliefs / even when they are righteous / you will never be able to defend your city / while shouting. // Remember whatever pain you bring back / from your dreaming / but do not look for new gods / in the sea / nor in any part of a rainbow / Each time you love / love as deeply as if were / forever / only nothing is / eternal. // Speak proudly to your children / where ever you may find them / tell them / you are offspring of slaves / and your mother was / a princess / in darkness.