I walk into the fray, to suggest, I disagree with the status quo.

There it begins, our ability to change,

We do need only the challenge to create the fear of reprisal.

Yet everywhere we look in the books, the words, the platforms,

wherever we land always seems to encourage,

the ability to change, I mean, challenge, well, we might

go forward.

I am a white man in a world of pain that doesn’t come close to

his agony, her resentment, their desire to exchange the gains.

For when they measure their own departures aren’t childhoods reminded

of that innocence, that delight, that indulgence of the human condition

without any agenda, no scrutiny, no ill met ignorance that drains

my own energy when I try to imagine what my life is in need,

I conclude, without any distinct pleasure,

I am a lucky man.

Yet today, in the waking morning of a sunrise in winter,

I must find a way to arrive in the front lines of this,

our personal responsibility to awaken our soul,

to protest the reality of our lives, together,

moving steady,

gaining strength,

finding peace,

as we walk, slow, cautious, forward.