Happy 2026 Observers! I hope that your transition into the new year was a smooth one and that abundance greets you all throughout the calendar year. This poem is a reshare of a piece I wrote a few years back called Day Ones. It was inspired by my learning that January 1 was known as “hiring day” during the cruel institution of chattel slavery in the United States. Hiring day separated enslaved families, often indefinitely. But there were those who reconnected with their loved ones, and I imagined even those who didn’t, never lost any love for those who loved them first.
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Text for poem below
Day Ones
I come from a community of day ones. Or I come from a people that prioritize those we started with. Maybe, our loyalty is a response to bloodlines re-routed against their will. Maybe, our marrow never stopped aching for missing family members. Maybe, we understand that the love from those who loved us first is the closest to an invaluable offering that we will ever know.
It is possible that our bones are the most sensitive to separation. That any disconnect from our beloved sends a shock to our systems, scaring us with the possibility of no return.
Maybe, we revere our day ones so fiercely because we can still feel our ancestors’ embrace being severed as they were sent somewhere that love was not guaranteed.
Maybe, we clutch tightly to our OG loved ones because we know there is a world out there cruel enough to deprive us of that kinda warmth for the remainder of our days.
Maybe, it is impossible for those who first held us close to ever feel like distance. Or indifference. Or something, missing.
Maybe, we love our day ones as recompense to a fractured legacy. Or to prove that real bonds are indeed inseparable.
No matter what weapon attempts to form.
