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The Calm Feb 2021
I pray for a day
When we don’t have to turn pain into power
I pray for a day
When we don’t have to feel shame or cower
The sweet promise of freedom
In our stomach turned sour
Massacres and mobs
Hold torches screaming *******

I pray for a day
When we all rise up
Lungs filled with blood or sea water
Will you drink from my cup?
Can you weather the rain?
Can you carry the pain?
Can you listen to the voices
Of the ones that were slain?
Bodies left broken on trees
And pulled to the depth of the seas
Bodies injected with disease
And necks crushed with knees

I pray for a day
When we can grow as one
Power and pride
And second to none
In strength and stride
With no fear of a gun
That can take the life
Of another mother’s son
The first stanza talks about the consistent owning of the pain people in the black community have to do. Owning words that were once meant to demean us. It talks about how all promises of freedom made to us were followed by actions showing the opposite.

The second stanza mentions a line “ will you drink from my cup” comes from Matthew 20:22 when Jesus asks Zebedees sons if they can drink from his cup. Can we take the pain that is necessary to move our people forward. Can we not only accept the pain of our current struggles but those of the past. Not to bear them forever but to hold them long enough to understand why we fight for freedom and equity.

The last stanza is hopes for the future. An equitable one, where we can fight from the same playing field. Where we don’t have to fear gun violence
The Calm Aug 2020
Someday,
The pain you feel right now will be useful
What will you do
Until then,
The Calm Aug 2020
Love like a river
Unrelenting, strong, consistent
Even if the water gets rough
Even if the muddy below blurs your view
Never stop flowing
And don't focus so much on where you're going
Because rivers change course and become stronger when it rains
Its the reason why we should love even when it pains
Love, and build a city around it
Love, and don't let anyone make you doubt it
The Calm Jun 2020
The sun
The water
On a warm spring day

The splashes
The laughter
The rushing of the waves

Oh how i desire the coming summer days
The Calm Jun 2020
I love hearing the birds sing
In the mornings of early spring
Life may not always be a gentle thing
But I feel like all will be alright
When i hear the birds sing
The Calm Jun 2020
Please write back to me and tell me how to protest,
Because I'm terrified of running into a bad cop, or privileged white people thinking they can make a citizens arrests

Please give me something else to do since you don't want me to take a knee,
To silently protest while you sing an anthem that represents you but doesn't represent me

Please teach me how protest ,
So you don't have to reproach me for my lack of decorum,
Give me something that will change the outcome
Cause people are dying and it seems you don't care , how come ?

We defend the indefensible crimes of those paid to protect us, and expect us to sit idly by as they **** us,
Turn on the news and watch
Watch them defend the good ole' boys in blue as they go through our history and berate us

Dear white people,
Why can I not yell and scream ?
To make up for the air taken from George Floyd's lungs as he whimpered I can't breathe

Breathe, an unequivocal human right
A knee to the neck, crushing the passage way,
from his eyes was gone the light
The sight, myself a black man that will raise black sons how can I not stare in fright?

Fright , fear in my heart from the sight
The new Jim Crow or the old one?
No ropes but we are still lynched
No dogs chasing us but still the same plight

Dear white white church,
You're probably the biggest problem of all.
All the political capital and still you don't answer our call.
So focused on abortion rights but don't seem to care about black babies when they get a little tall

Jesus was a man of color unjustfully killed
Jesus was a man of color unjustfully killed

Every black man and woman killed an image of Christ but it seems you've willed
Yourself into believing that God doesn't see
Your silence, you've been billed!
And no penance can pay the cost you owe
In the pockets of politicians
You've gone so low
Picking a party over people
You thought we wouldn't know ?
Its no surprise that Donald Trump would go to a church posing with a Bible
Appeasing you so
You fill his pockets with dollars so that the calamity never ends

Dear white allies
We appreciate you answering the call
The problem doesn't directly affect you but still you stand and stand tall
You are our professors, elders, neighbors , church members you give your energy , your passion, your privilege and you use it all

Dear white allies,
We're happy to call you friends
The work is far from done
Its never fun but friendships like this never end.
thoughts from a rough couple of weeks
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