Felt Like time for a re-run, this felt relevant, since this moment is a re-run of a re-run of a re-run of a re-run of a re-run of a re-run…
Maybe we can finally get a clue and get off the island someday. Black Lives Matter!!!
Soap Dispenser – Montgomery – Alabama – 2018
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We’re here because we just want to wash our hands
After making waters.
As blood whispers out upon the lands
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I hear the chains of sons and stolen daughters.
Why did God make light
After making waters
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To place the birth of civil right
Just beneath the scratch of hateful knives?
Why did God make light
·
If not to count the cost of broken lives?
Where do we find the strength to catch a breath
Just beneath the scratch of hateful knives?
·
A blank star cradles still the toiling stench of death,
We turn away and stop our ears from hearing,
Where do we find the strength to catch a breath,
·
If closed eyes have nothing to be fearing?
As blood whispers out upon the lands,
We turn away and stop our ears from hearing.
We’re here because we just want to wash our hands.
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– Lona Gynt, December 2018
All rigths reserved for text and photos to Lona Gynt, December 2018.
This poem was read at HSV Outloud Open Mike in Honor of Black History Month in February 2020 (Seems like an eternity ago now doesn’t it?)
Scattered thoughts made a little more random 
Profound, Lona. How can anyone feel free in such an atmosphere.
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Sadly so true.
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Awful, and the depressing research shows that it takes over 100 years to effect real change. Sigh. Hoping that we can all keep the pressure on where we are.
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I hope we will end the year better than we started it.
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Me too, hoping we can see people, rather than the politicising of groups and ignoring real needs, let’s have real community.
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I remember reading this piece a couple years ago, but thank you for revisiting and sharing it now. And truly, thank you for your Christian voice speaking up about this humanity issue. Astoundingly and so disappointingly, the professed Body of Christ is quiet on this or mildly sympathetic, but the world gets the idea that Christians today must not really believe black lives matter, or at least not enough to speak it.
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Right, I just don’t get it
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Wow, this is a powerful piece. Such a simple act – washing your hands – and yet, racism was still able to make it’s way in. The imagery and weight of your words are palpable. I hope people do not just “wash their hands” of what is happening because it is getting hard or because the news cycle is moving on.
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Thank you my friend, it was a moment when the audacious terror of what was in front of me slowly sunk in. Had just watched “12 years a slave” and there was modern city honoring its role in that terror right in front of my eyes, and the redemptive power of Parks and King scratched out. We are not haunted by ghosts of a lost cause, we are all culpable now. I am hopeful by the voices making themselves heard now.
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Yes, I am hoping too….
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This was beautiful and moving Lona. I cannot believe that seal 😦
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I think it is in someways to remember the history that Montgomery is the cradle of the Confederacy, but it is terrifying to see it honored in a municipal seal. I think it could be improved by having it say “Cradle of Confederate Oppression and Terror” ringed by Birthplace of the the Civil Rights Movement.
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Yes it may well have been the cradle of the confederacy but it is nothing to be proud of. They should all be removed just like the statues
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It’s those simple actions that focus the light most strongly. Just to be able to live a regular life without fear. (K)
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Yes my friend, true! Taken for granted by so many of us 💕
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