journey something

Plump and round, waddling out of the house

Rosy cheeks and a big black belt with a big fat buckle

Bald as a bat and smiley as a salamander

Furry animal companion jolly as can be

Skin white as snow with wooden puppet eyes

Wooden puppet eyes and a wooden puppet soul

Waddling out of the house of the black neighbors

Why is Santa man wearing a gun?

Why does he have five clones? and that’s not a reindeer!

And it’s not Christmas Eve!           

Five white men waddle out of the black neighbor’s house

Searching for a reason to pull the trigger

Searching for a reason to perpetuate the disparity between

Black and white in a “free society” with “opportunity” and an “American dream”

Excuse your interruption, wooden puppet eyes

I know my neighbors and my neighbors know me

But I don’t know you and your hot lead weapon is not welcome here

Excuse your interruption wooden puppet eyes

While we were busy crossing cultural lines and getting comfortable

With each other’s skin

You brought your warrant and your hot itchy gun.

Thanks for the unwarranted reminder

Of white man’s oppression and the scars of our fathers

Of power and control and who’s in control

Of why it’s not okay to trust a white man

Even with plump rosy cheeks and a jolly grin and fury companion

We could have talked about it over dinner

But you brought it to our doorstep along with your hot lead weapon

So back to work you go and back to work I go

But listen closely Santa man while I tell a prophecy

Hope will see the end of the hot lead weapon

We’ll burry it deep in the earth and it will join the granite of old

Faith will bring forgiveness and reconciliation

And heal the deep scars of our fathers

Love will see us through our differences

So that we can hold each other’s hands and each other’s hearts

These three, and only these three will remain. And that is our work.

*This poem was inspired this morning as I looked outside my window to see five deputies searching my neighbor’s home.