Poetry

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I wrote this a while back, and what's important to me can't be important to everyone. However, it's extremely sad that we often ignore issues that need to be "dealt" with! Actually, it infuriates me! If something like racism is deemed 'too heavy', some people just throw in on the back burner, pretending it doesn't exist. That's exactly WHY I wrote this piece when I did. I was so affected by what I saw that I HAD to write. Is it because we just don't have the answers? Is it because we just don't care? Are we THAT desensitized? I don't know. I just don't. The only thing I DO know is that I CARE, get upset, and MUST use whatever platform I have to speak out in the hope of making even a tiny difference somewhere- to someone. I have to believe others care, too. If they don't, boy are we headed for even more trouble.


I was driving down the street today --
when I passed a young man walking on his way.
A car driving by "flipped him the bird".
I said to myself, "This is absurd."
What did he do? What did he say?
What was the reason he was treated that way?
As far as I could see, he was doing no harm.
Just walking down the street, causing no alarm.
He was a young black man on the sidewalk of life.
The two young men who drove by, caused him such strife.
Yes, they were white. Is that what is was?
Are we in such a state, that THAT is their cause?
To harass a human being, just walking along-
to have no remorse- to feel it's not wrong.
It caused me such grief that I just had to write;
although it is late -- far past midnight.
I cannot forget what I saw just today - how it stabbed through my soul as I went on my way.
I cried a tear over this un-witnessed crime,
and God will cry his own - as he blocks the sunshine.
And how must he feel, this young vibrant man?
To be looked down upon - he shouldn't HAVE to understand.
Neither can I. For it makes little sense,
to judge a human soul by the skin he presents. And who are WE to judge one another?
Are WE all but one soul joined as sisters and brothers?
I cry for the earth. I cry for the sky. I cry for the man on the street walking by.
I cry for our incapacity to see what is real.
I cry for the hungry...Just give them a meal!
I cry out to God, "Why can't we see, that we are but one - part of you, part of me?"
I wish I could change all these narrow, hard minds.
I wish we could act more like God...COLOR BLIND.
© Ellen M. DuBois

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