The words feel too empty
Too incomplete
I'm offering prayers that walk streets
I do not know. I cannot fully know
But I can lament
And let my lips linger
On names that spent
their last moments running
from fates unimaginable
How do we reel in the darkness
from swallowing the light
The whole earth is mourning
all creation groaning
Desperately trying to hold the reigns tight
Our blisters have blisters, the day becomes night
In the midst of our cries
you are the source of peace
You are the song the sidewalk sings as it cries itself to sleep
You are the joy on the horizon
A love undivided
You are the whisper to keep running, dancing, laughing, loving
Even when our feet cannot bear the load
you are the arms holding us close
Clothed in permanent sack cloth and ashes
Mourn with those who mourn
There's a new morning coming, I'm sure
filled with peace unknown
Foreign to our weeping bones
No more bullet holes
through car windows
Train your lungs to breathe in new spaces
The opposition of hate is not more hatred
Be the very testimony that Love shall prevail
Even as the world tries to nail
hope to a cross over and over
And over and over
We are the broken ones crying out to be healed
Forgive us for we know not what we are doing
Don't let our anger settle into the conclusion
that violence is normal-
It will never be normal
We do not have the words to say
Because we're not supposed to
We were not made for this
A pain so divisive, aching hearts and bitterness
This is not the garden we were planted in
But each morning is a chance to rise again
Grateful for breath in our lungs
The songs that have sung for thousands of years
against all odds, against the backdrop of fear
Reminding us that even when sorrow comes day after day
Hope will always get the final, final say
