Blind I Was Until I Could See

Blind I lived

Until I could see

Going to and fro

As privileged as could be.

Blind I lived

Everywhere I looked

Felt comfortable

Every turn I took.

Built into my spaces

Those assumptions that I made

I held to them like a cloak

From the chill of winter afraid.

Sameness is what I saw

Left and right so it seems

Those people over there

Blinding that heavy beam.

Whiteness is how I lived

Who would be surprised

The folks with different skin

Were somehow to be despised.

How long could that be maintained

And live and be somehow sane

To hide behind that wall

And pretend to be humane.

There were small dents here and there

By Cora and the prof we called Doc

My father’s friend named Charlie

The Black preacher even more the shock.

College opened up the door

To more people of other races

Still the assumptions just lingered

Without opening up all the spaces.

Then the call came that day

“The severity of the cause”

The words I heard

More than made me pause.

Into their world I wondered

Stories of farming while black

The powers and oppression

My white world did severely crack.

The mediation hearing in DC

Powerful people all around the room

Farmer, wife, and legal counsel

Would the feds their lives consume.

By grit and determination

The lawsuits they did win

How much of life they lost

These things America’s greatest sin.

Other people and conversations

Continued to challenge my thinking

Gary Doc Van Welchel Janice Major

My blindness rapidly shrinking.

Enslaved Africans chained

Inside the brutal ship

Bought and sold like cattle

On the auction block forced to strip.

Brought here to work the land

To support the owners greed

Never to own the land

Freedom a deeply planted seed.

From then until now

Whiteness the dominant color

Who made that determination

Of the value of the other.

We see it all around

When we live with open eyes

Oppression left and right

To many there is no surprise.

From red lining

To obstacles at the voting booth

Crime violence against people

Passed time to learn the truth.

To fulfill the dreamers dream

Cease judging by color of skin

But by content of ones character

Living beyond our original sin.

Memory and Memories of a Marginalized People

Memory

I wonder how you work

Memory

Do you just smirk

At people like me

Who find you most interesting can we agree

How much of you

Is mine to own

Or what

Is about seeds they’ve sown

To what degree

Am I free

To say that you

Are bigger than me

In the faceless crowd

I see each week

Do I remember

That which I seek

Or is it simply remembering to remember

Those voices

That I hear inside

Do they come from me

Or on the winds do ride

I hear them say

Again this day

What I think I heard

Or have I been stirred

And my mind blurred

And still I am

Shaped by those voices

And those spoken words

“My blood is on this land

Farming is in my DNA

When will this all be over

The law may be color blind

But people aren’t

On three separate occasions

Finagled their way out

There’s money in here

But there’s none in here

For you all”

Yes

Those voices

That I hear inside

Do they come from me

Or on the winds do ride

I think you know

Dear Lord, Thanks

Dear Lord:

Hear our prayer for rest and peace,

From all our strivings, Lord, to cease.

For food to eat and joy to share

To hang with those for whom we really care.

We thank you.

For travel way off to foreign fields

To see our grandson play a game that yields

Him joy and fun

While on the run

For travel way off to foreign fields
To see our grandson play and sing
Makes our hearts ring
When he strums that thing.

We thank you.

For Easter Sunday and all of its gain

To chase our dream and enjoy the rain

To see the babies grow each day

To love their parents along the way.

We thank you.

For the promises that this day brings

To laugh and cry and pray and sing

To read and write and search it out

To find the truth and with a shout

Say once more

We thank you.

Amen