The Black Lives Matter mural on Hamilton Avenue in front of Palo Alto’s City Hall, California
Drought Broken... Shaking Our World to its Very Foundation
It is frightening…
The raw unfettered life-giving energy of lightning
With its spontaneous thunder
Breaks the air…
And speaks in violent monotones
To earth and sky and sea…
And all that in these dwell
The living…And the dead
It is quickening…
The juice of life that falls upon us
Without distinguishing the just from the unjust…
It quenches the thirsty ground
And grows with ever increasing fecundity
The seeds of men and beasts...
And all that for these dwell
Of living…And of dead
It is frightening…
It is quickening…
The raw unfettered juice of Life
That falls upon us
Distinguishing between the living and the dead…
It breaks the fear…
And makes us speak as authentic beings
To earth and sea and sky
And all that in these dwell
As living souls who have come to know the fecundity of freedom...
Souls who no longer
Allow our seeds to fall…And perish…
On what for some…is fertile ground
With freedom comes the quickening
Of an otherwise fettered life…
And they will know the frightening
Who once maintained the strife…
It is violently magnificent
This flash and its accompanying roar… Of truth
That signals the abolition of all the codes
That keep those in their place
Who for one reason…or other
Suffer for the inequities of their ancestors
Emancipation comes to all
Who by omission or commission
Are residents of those barb-wired spaces in time…
Till now they have only existed…
And now…Now they are...
Quickened from the dead… they live again...
And the sounds of drums you hear
Are amplified reproductions of their hearts’ beats
We know that freedom is no gift
So we dance in celebration of our birthright…
Speak my heart…Shake my world
Shake my world of its complacency…
Rid my world of its indecency…
Speak my heart…
Cause the spark that starts a fire
Build a ladder that takes me higher...
Higher than the fear
That keeps my soul impounded…
That keeps my spirit grounded…
Speak my heart…
Cause my feet to listen
Inspire my hands to clear the way
That leads to the place
Where the lightning is stored…
Speak my heart… Speak and I will listen
Awaken now and quicken the living and the dead…
Break the drought that makes of my world
The valley… of the shadow of death
Break free my heart… And quench this parched place in my soul…
Guide my feet to the place… Where living waters flow.
