Sunday, February 9, 2014

Moral March

We were many people
waving many banners

marching together
under whatever
we call God

Race gender class
preference for love

(certain folks
dared call us "fringe")

all feeling a sense of resolve
on a cloudy February day

"Forward together
not one step back."

We walked and stood
and were led
by black justice traditions

hearing stories
(from the aforementioned fringe)

of solidarity
and too many
real-life scars.

"It's mighty low"
to use power
to take away

yet Rev. William J. Barber
made sure
not to indict.

"It is not
Democrat versus Republican

It is not 
liberal versus conservative

It is
right versus wrong."

Then he sang the refrain
of "higher ground"
over and over

till we felt the mass
of ourselves

pushing upwards.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.