Rings around Rosa

Her casket the size of a child,
she lies in the Capitol rotunda
honored by a country that did not
welcome her quiet rebellion,
her reminder of what children
already know – that we are
all born free.

later, presidents and priests
sing her praises while children
retell her story on classroom stages
and millions weep gratefully in
their hearts for her life of courage.

She had no children
of her own but everyone needed her
for their mother, from kings
to country women:

She gave us faith
She gave us hope
She gave us love

and these three rings around Rosa
grew into pillars of freedom.

back to top

Looking for Joseph or Jesus or Martin on the Gulf Coast

Enslaved by fate if not law,
a people cry out in despair,
and looking for a King in a
coat of many colors
a master of good fortune
who can feed them
despite the floods,
lead them to high land
or a dry cool bed;
read them stories of salvation
that still come true;
knead them acts of hope
like babies eating raisins,
children singing songs,
old men drinking whiskey,
firemen saving queens,
preachers sharing love,
buses leaving town.

No Degrees of Love

Never mind looking glasses; it is walls that we must learn to walk through...the former lead us only into the miasma of our own fears, the latter let us into the intimate lives of others not as flies but as participants in a dance of particles choreographed by the will of the Spirit and designed only to bring us ever closer to each other and Love. There may be six degrees of separation but there are no degrees of love for it is not meant to be mastered but lives as an infinite ellipse beyond measurement or edges, subject only to the limits of our imaginations and the walls of our fears