Justice, Love, and Consciousness

 

“Injustice anywhere is a threat 

To justice everywhere.” 

If I had a language to do justice

To the lines MLK spit

In every speech and letter, 

I would stand on my podium 

With my head held higher 

Than usual- like pride is 

Inherited through my bloodstream. 

I wish I could show his gravestone 

A better world than the one 

He wrote to in the 1960’s, 

But racism is still occurring 

And nonviolent protests 

Have become more violent. 

Recently, I joined a poetry group

Called The Conscious Poets Society, 

Where the focus is drawing out 

The awareness and taking down

Ignorance one word at a time. 

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous 

Than sincere ignorance and 

Conscientious stupidity.”

Inequality is not acceptable. 

Injustice is not acceptable. 

To quote Taylor Mali, 

“Injustice isn't injustice 

It's just in us as we are just in ice."

To the man who tried to teach 

Love and compassion and 

Tolerance to all, 

We celebrate your labor, 

Your hard work toward 

Creating a justice expanding

Through the generations. 

I may not have been alive 

When you were, 

But your mission, 

Your fight for justice, 

Lives on in each of our hearts-

A generation set against hating, 

Bonding wherever we can. 

Natasha Tretheway, U.S. poet laureate, 

Wrote of this fight in her book, 

Native Guard. 

Maybe if we had more people 

Guarding their cultures, 

Embracing the beauty 

Of their heritage, 

We would be stronger as a nation- 

A people. 

Injustice may be just in us, 

But it’s time for another wave, 

A flood of tolerance. 

We fight hand in hand now, 

Breaking down barriers. 

And your memory stands with us

In the battlefield of 

Every stand up comedy routine, 

Every racist joke, 

Every slander based on race. 

But love is the answer. 

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; 

Only light can do that. 

Hate cannot drive out hate; 

Only love can do that.” 

One love. Hand in hand,

We walk into the future. 

 

-Seraphine