Shapeshifting

Each morning, I stretch my limbs

and allow the soft animal in me

to pull and push.

This way, that way,

a limb, then another,

in a familiar routine. In turn,

every single particle of my inner creature

calls attention to itself.

The mild animal in me is no longer soft.

It has awakened into agility and

readiness to shape shift.

Now stretched into a bow and arrow,

determined and practised,

it aims for the orgre’s underbelly.

With precision, it busts the lies

and exposes the moral injury we are enduring

at the whims of drunks gorged on greed and power.

And thus, while shattering this waking nightmare,

we reclaim our humanity and our honor.

Poem inspired by Mary Oliver and by Lady Libertie’s essay, “The Moral Injury of Living Through America’s Unraveling,” published on Jan 8, 2026, on Substack

https://open.substack.com/pub/ladylibertie/p/this-is-what-it-feels-like-when-a?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&shareImageVariant=overlay&r=gjon9

Moral injury

The term comes from psychology and military ethics. It describes the damage done when a person witnesses, participates in, or is forced to accept actions that violate their deepest moral beliefs. It is not fear. It is not trauma in the classic sense. It is the corrosion of meaning itself.

This is not new, but in the US, it is now on full display and on steroids.

Photo credits go to Humusak via Pixabay and Adrien Olichon via Pixabay