A diamond is forever, diamond hard,
a chip of time, cutting glass,
as pain cuts flesh, a diamond
is a petrified tear, sorrow
hardened by fierce sustained
pressure into something that
can stab, can endure, can break
but only if a flaw is found.

A diamond is coal that has suffered
and burned and crystallized
into a thing that takes light
into itself. Do you know
where diamonds come from?
Whose suffering is this you wear
glinting at your ear, winking
from your finger? How many
children's eyes shine in it

There is something once soft
that grows hard, bright
as the pressure crushes it.
There is something once soft
that burns harder than steel
in the furnace of pain.

Call it a diamond. Call it
the heart of a people.
Call it the heart of pain
crystallized to something that
can gouge armor, something
that stands in the ashes
of the terrible fire.

Nothing is forever, not
prison, not the pain
of a people pressed down,
not the eyes of children shining
and then dimmed, not
diamonds glinting like
chips of frozen sun.
This is not a jewel
I would wear lightly.
This is not a jewel
I would wear.