I wrote this poem around a year ago and never felt it was the right time to share it. Maybe I was scared to have my words out there, maybe I was thinking it was too heavy. Either way, I can’t keep it hidden any longer. My heart breaks for our country. I want peace, I want love and I want equality for all.

To the people

To the people who think death is owed
Based on a choice and familiar road
How is it fair when justice lacks
Death penalty for misdemeanor acts

To the people who assign worth
base on skin color and place of birth
Assumptions are made in places with less
That everyone there brings down and depress

To the people who parade the hateful flag
Displaying the wrong side like a humble brag
It represents a side who is against unity
Making ones scared in their own community

To the people who stand with the American dream
Built on trees with lifeless screams
The nation we know was built on a lie
Land of the free, the leaders imply

To the people who say nothing
When they know what they saw was something
Speak up, rise up and join the fight
Stand with your neighbors for what’s right

To the people with rose colored glasses
Living your best life in fancy wrapped packages
This is a year of clearer vision
Putting others in a different position

The broken craves to be mentioned
What matters is what needs attention
Plaster to immobilize and mend
Left alone would be the end

Darkness comes to distract from what’s right
Blinding us from seeing the light
Our focus should be on what’s above
We must fight our instinct and just love

Fear creates an alternate reality
Unable to hear another’s plea
Our actions define what we believe
Light or dark, truth or deceived

To the people who stand for justice
Where excuses pour out with injustice
Squeaky wheels get attention
Change must require some tension

To the people who cry in disbelief
Letting out shouts of anger in grief
What will make us whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus, Amen

Photo taken by Joshua Lott