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

3^rd 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