We Build Again

We Build Again

 (“The breaker goes up before them…” Micah 2:13a)

Justice will wing its way through every shout,
every aggression, and take to the sky with
the hopes of the forgotten trailing behind. 

Justice is no blind counterweight; it is the perfect
vision of love when the children of trauma are forgotten.
It sees the invisible, the erased, the stolen, the refugee,
the frozen and the effigies of cousins roped to the trees.

 And we keep marching, we keep coming,
we will not be moved, we will not be undone.
And we keep shouting, we will overcome,
for one by one we’ll cross any bridge to see
the work of mercy done.

 But some backs are bent, some feet are bleeding,
some eyes are dim, some arms are reaching
for the goal set before them that is receding
with every determined step and limp. 

So we keep marching, we keep moving,
we are not yet done, we will not be erased.
And we keep singing, hard rain’s gonna fall,
for arm in arm we’ll cross any sea to find
the promised kingdom come. 

Justice is our banner, never forgotten,
the rains will not wash away the message written with blood.
Mercy is our weapon, our hands up and empty,
our faces soiled with tears for the wounded and wounding,
the rain will not wash our grubby cheeks and noses
until the floods have come to drain the streets
and leave behind
only empty lots where 

Arm in arm, we build again.