Wait til Dawn

I dug up this old poem from high school that I wrote and I found it to be so relevant in the wake of dismantling the systematic issues with how we have dealt with race and inequity for several hundreds of years.

tell me to stand against a white wall

i shall not move-you will see nothing but a shadow

tell me to stand against a black wall

i shall not move-you will see nothing but a shadow

it does not matter whether you are inside or outside

in the whiteness of the light or the blackness of the dark

your soul shall shine through

the shadow stands still, listless and abandoned

til the screaming of voices are uttered by those who are crying

it doesn’t matter who is lined up against that wall

they don’t know who you are by the outlines of their bodies

sometimes darkness will overbear our fears and troubles

and sometimes light shows nothing but ourselves

the truth may only whisper a sad cry of the heart

some say i am blind because i look beyond the color

some say i see the color and turn away in despair

maybe the wounds may never be healed

or the pain that ails you at night

as long as you are stuck in this place

listen and be all you can be

for if God made this creation we must cast away the shadows

and open up our hands

if life were a shadow, would you be friends with your friend

or talk to the stranger who said hello

or help the soul you did

there are going to be times in our lives that the lights

will be on and off

we have to let love be free to fly above us

if i were black or i were white

the shadows would live beyond sight

the cloud stands over us but the sun is shining inside

let there be power that lies within us

and let the words of a man who said

“i have a dream” (Martin Luther King Jr. Speech1963) prevail through our minds and our souls.