Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Ode to My Children - a poem I wrote for Sunday's service "Black Lives Matter"

I always told my children
Who are now grown men
Not To Cower down to might
And to stand up for the right
I am blessed they are alive
And have a chance to thrive
I was ignorant their plight was hard
And how authorities played their cards
I didn’t tell them
They should obey
Always Do What they say
The Boys in Blue
It’s just the job they do.
Facing it every day
A Job driven by fear
Cant imagine what they see
Cant imagine what they hear
But the videos I see
Make me question, are we free
I see the after and not before
Its true I may not know the score
But shooting a man in the back
Its cowardly and unnecessary
And that is a fact

Pushing a child in bikini to the ground
Sitting on her  pulling her hair
Have we forgotten love
Have we forgotten care
Is it wrong,
Who am I to say
But due to my privilege
That’s the burden I must pay
I was born to write
I was born to speak
I cant be muted and
I cant be meek

Maybe if I stand up
To help end this racism
Maybe In the long run
It’ll  be a better place that we all live in
Maybe I stand up to the gun in my face
I stand with my brothers and sisters of a different race
Maybe I stand up with my face to the gun
Because maybe Next time
Maybe next time
They will target my sons
My sons,
They are all my sons
Wrote Arthur miller
He was condemning the capitalist
He was condemning war killers
The dead are all my brothers and sistas
We have to say more than just hey we’ll all  miss ya
We have to stop the notion
That people of color always cause  the commotion
We have to stop the
3rd grade to prison pipeline
We have to stand up and say
It is way beyond time.

We have to stand up
And walk as allies
Or otherwise we allow
Others to perpetuate these white lies
I know I worry about my sons its true
And I do worry about the men in blue
To have such fear with the need to kill
Creates a heart with hate all filled.
So lets find love in our heart
Lets all do our part
Together if we walk
Together if we talk
The world will change
That may be unsettling
That may feel strange
The Buddha says we must awake
And it is true, There is much at stake
So now I ask you to stand with me
So together we can make the world see
That love has a power
Love can make hatred cower
That love dispels fear
And brings restorative justice near
Now I ask you to stand with me
To rise in body or spirit to sing
Our closing hymn
Building a new way number 1017