‘I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality…

…I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.’

MLK

 

When?

 

When you’ve lived flinching the scrape of prejudice, 

When you’ve fought every day for your Imago Dei, 

Convincing the world of your right to breath,

While shoved in a category catalogued by your skin, 

When the injustice system stands on your neck

And you finally explode in anguished rage 

Venting vengeance, despaired of change. 

This is what pain looks like. 

 

When you’ve lived life feeling the scrape of prejudice 

When your house gets bombed with your young family inside

And then you stand outside and preach nonviolence

To the crowds venting vengeance, despaired of change

When your soul remains inviolate 

And your message is Love in the face of hate

When you give your life for the change you make

This is what greatness looks like. 

 

When you have to shoot tear gas through a peaceful crowd

Just to walk to a church that you don’t attend

So you can wave a Bible that you don’t read 

To placate a following blinded by lies 

And masquerade before Press that you don’t respect 

to lead a country your words divide

A nation now crumbling, polarised

This is what weakness looks like.

 

When we continue the work MLK began

When we live Christ’s love with scars on hands 

When we crucify prejudice, hate and fear

And cease cataloguing humans by shades of skin

When we erase the line between ‘us’ and ‘them’

When unarmed truth has the final word 

And unconditional love is felt and heard

This is what change looks like.