Six Ways from Sunday

 

Listen, Y'all, even if trouble comes at you

Six ways from Sunday, I stopped by to tell

You that it's gonna be okay

Because GOD, not hatred and not Covid-19

Is in charge at the end of the day.

Something foul is breeding in our land

But, I never thought much about it

Until day before yesterday, at the clinic, I received

A look of naked hatred from an unmasked man.

The hatred was so raw that I was taken aback

And checked my stride before I continued

My walk on up to the check-in desk

Being cautious not to intrude upon the six-feet

Social distancing rule of the next guest.

Covid-19 -- I wish it would not be

But that decision is not left up to me

Knee on the neck until a man's dying plea

Is, "Momma, I can't breathe."

And the subsequent looting and rioting in the streets

Until people said over and over

"LORD, have mercy, where are the police?!"

These things, so-o ought not to be!

Hatred is a malignant cancer that

Eats at anything in its path

But I want folk to come together before

We feel an even bigger sting of its wrath.

You see, here's the thing that I want

Folk to think about

Covid-19 has decreed that everybody

Use social-distancing and wear a mask

But the rioting mobs of the last few days

Seem to have forgotten, for the most part, that task

For several cities, the nation over

Had races of all kinds letting

Their angry thoughts be voiced

And their hatred ran so hot that they

Forgot that in the cool of the day

When their anger had run its course

Whatever they picked up in the non-social distancing

Mob was invited right back home with them

And death or sickness, carte blanche, may wreak

Havoc on their families

And their burning anger may soon be

Replaced with abject misery.

If I could, I would say

To officials in charge of these situations

Please, please, choose with care

Each word that you say

Because you might cause somebody

Else's death, at the end of the day.

But, I am just a lowly poet

Who is a Christian by choice

And though nobody much wants

To listen to my voice

I still say, "Soothing and healing words

Are needed for our land

So that we can unite and fight the

Greater threat, Covid-19, which

Threatens the lives of every man.©

(Based on Proverbs 10:11-12, 31-32 and Chapter 11:2, 17.)

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