Prayer to a Scream
A poem
“You cannot let race consume you.”
— as told to me by Laurence Lieberman, my college poetry professor
What
We lost
In the fire
Will find us
Through the ashes
Reawakened
By embers of memory
Spry
In the brilliant corners
Of our collective
Conscience.
Now, if only we could be free
As a country, if only we could escape
The cage of condescending
Conformity with its pre-flawed
Laws of a politically polluted
Melting pot and its post-racial
Confearacy, feeling the light
That guides us through our darkest days
With faith in the fate of falling in love with the world
Despite history; but, till the moment
When the rivers of hope and love converge
Flowing to the end of our spirits and the confluent
Ends of Earth, so all the world can hear
Our waters, letting us know
That the racial mountain is no more
…we are only partially free.
2017/2021 MDSHall
