of

of tabula rasa's and rows of welts

of high blood pressure and bleeding nose

of tumbling down stairs and bloody beatings

of sparse mem'ries and an exceptional aunt

of constant corrections and brewing anger

of torching toys and touching butt

of too many niggers and segregated lives

of poison run wild and venom in the heart

of dreams unreachable and an open mind

of hatred embedded and childhood abuses

of minding children and being too young

of depressing language and inflamed killings

of so many "shoulds" that became depressing

tying me down to the bottom of hell

a dot on a page in the hist'ry of race

a destructible exclusion discrimination swelled

...and the toxins swelled, poisoning the heart

destroying the soul, before one started

*Reflections of Jean Sulivan:

  -It's impossible to wall up the word-parable without killing it.

  -...if the word is nourished and linked to the deepest needs of the individual, it's energy is boundless.

  -I know it's illusory to think that any society would ever be able to eliminate all forms of misery and horror; indeed, such a society would ultimately be inhuman.  But how can we be on the side of the humiliated without taking action against the oppressors?  Love cannot exist without anger.  Don't we know that there is a type of love of the poor which is simply complicity with the structures of society that created poverty?

  -To love each other in God, in Christ, within the limits of a particular clan or class, refusing to understand the influence of culture, money, and power - the consubstantial, almost invisible violence that is done to people every day - is relatively easy and can be done sincerely.  All that's needed is to bow to the "evidence" offered by one's own prejudices or self-interest.  Such love becomes harder when we take sides here and now, against what really prevents people from coming together - against the exploitation of work, the world-wide supermarket that dictates the law of the jungle.  Because in that case a price must be paid.

  -To be blessed with faith can be simply the infantile happiness of someone who has placed limits on the Word and enclosed it in a cocoon.  Someday it may crack.  One truth stands out: Christian love is only a mockery if it doesn't strive in some way to make us neighbors.