I’m standing by…
I see all the images
Passing by
A conflict
A few words
A gun
A shot
A black man, another black man
Laying still on the side of the road.
But ALL lives matter
That is why we finish this one
Just one more…
A single sacrifice
Because we can’t risk
the many other lives
We just saved from him.
I’m standing by.
I’m standing by
As people demand justice
Through the court of law,
And I cannot understand
the demand.
After all justice is blind,
blind for all
If it weren’t for justice
Where would I be?
If it worked for me,
I know it must mean
It is not broken.
How dare I question
The system?
For those, I know
For sure
Broke the law.
If death is what they got
It must mean death is what they deserved.
I am standing by.
We are a Christian America no more
Where we ever?
As we stand by
Jesus would be telling us
“I do not know you”
Drawing a line on the sand
saying
Shoot your first bullet
Whoever is free from sin.
Jesus would be telling us
“I do not know you”
Flipping the tables
Inside the prison-industrial complex.
And the song of the faithful
Would break down the wall
the brown man would be free
to go live in Colorado
where others can carry freely
what put him behind bars
for so long
for so long
in the first place.
Jesus would be telling us
“I do not know you”
Did you see that dead man
On the side of the road?
Did you ask his name?
The book of life
is a roll of death.
Did you ask yourself
What about love?
…
What about love?
His family, children and friends
Did you ask what happened?
Did you move forward to compassion
Rather than fear of what it means
To be black, brown, or white in America
Because is too darn painful
To see…
when it comes to love
We just inched a tiny bit
Shaking the black body’s hand with the left
Never letting go our right hand from the noose
Attached to the lynching tree.
Because it’s fear.
Let us not forget that Soldiers,
the policemen of Rome
With power, might, and intimidation
hung Christ on the cross.
Are you still standing by?
©Teresita Matos-Post, www.poeticprophecy.com, December 2014.
*You may use this poem in worship, study, prayer, and protest. Download PDF File
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