Dear Sasha

If all goes according to plan
I’m never going to see you again

Does it both thrill and terrify you?
Because I am thrilled and I am terrified
I’m trying not to go out of my mind
With excitement and despair

It’s becoming hard, very hard
To focus solely on the Cause

Your last letter, it destroyed me
You were like a stranger!
No flowers in your words
Just plain dirt facts
You said: “I’ll do the deed on Saturday
If you get me money for the gun.”

I got you money for the gun

But is that how a man talks
To the woman he loves?

[Lighter, playful]
I know what you’ll say:
“Keep your focus on the Cause.”
As though my love for you is not the Cause!

[Teasing]

Sasha, you’re such a serious man
“Emma, you shouldn’t be singing!
Emma, you shouldn’t be dancing!
Your frivolity hurts the Cause!”

But Sasha, you don’t understand:
The Cause is the music
The Cause is the books
It’s the freedom
It’s the art
It’s the body
It’s the soul
It’s a vast, expansive life
Filled with beautiful things!
The Cause is not a cloister
It won’t make me a nun
And a revolution without dancing
Is not a revolution worth having

I will live my beautiful ideal
In spite of prison
In spite of persecution
In spite of the world
And even, Sasha, in spite of you