Reparations Detroit 1969 Jonathan’s Wake

It may the most good I’ve ever done

it ended tearfully

I write about it in the book above

It goes back fifty years

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Reparation is the ignored heart of justice

Reparation evens up symbolically

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Hurt never can be repaid

but it can be acknowledged

Reparation will be be made

More will be done than said

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Wronged people

everywhere are owed big time

Oppressors will toe the line

Reparation is the way

It is a sacrament

like bread and wine

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Oppressors cannot write

instructions for oppressed

but they can doff oppression

and many do

Oppressors cannot overcome the past

but repentance will always

manage to get through

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When Martin had a revolution

I joined up

Worked with Diane, Jim

and Kelly

nor far from

Music Row

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Will became my my lifelong partner

“Beloved community”

was heard

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But it was not to be

Thanks LBJ

Some do not agree

There’s no one way

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I was brash

I proposed reparations

But my right

to speak out was

withdrawn

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I went home

proposed it

anyway

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We gathered steam

went to Detroit

The churches

smacked us down

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Lost career

recovered some

then told stories

in songs

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Exclusion’s evil

from whatever quarter

Evil hurts all round

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Beyond exclusion

lies the truth

So beautiful

when found