The Spark

When there is silence
the weight of oppression
stills Justice and Good.

When there is awareness
movement occurs and there is
change.

When I speak and give voice
to a new awareness, a new
intolerance,
then change comes
alive.

Indifference and acceptance,
silence and fear
all mixed up into
oppression
gripping my heart,
gagging my soul,

“They” and “Them” and “Different”
only convenient labels
to hide my own silence,
my acceptance of evil,
my own chains of
slavery.

Finally,
when I speak, there is light,
and cockroaches in the night of my soul
scurry away
leaving freedom, and
Justice within reach.

--Neal Lemery, 2/2011