A way to get through this

Look deep into the current,
See what’s real and holy,
Look around: see your friends. 
Study sparkles in their pupils.
See how each face 
is a mirror of love 
Looking into you.
Trust the voices 
Who will summon
You in the night. 
Learn their names,
their numbers.
Plant phone trees.
These faces and voices:
They are your people.
Together you’ll be 
Pilgrims crossing Jordans
and dreaming up justice. 
Link your hands.
Learn—and relearn—
the torment of Love.

The tyrants will try
to redirect, distract,
and divide. But we 
Will remain a we: 
a people who believe 
in the glory of goodness, 
Kindness, mercy.

We cling to compassion.
We trust in Truth. 
We show up and share, 
Resist, protect.
We don’t care 
if this becomes
Dangerous. 
No one can take 
our faith from us—
our insistence
that love is 
outpoured, 
extended. 

We will keep 
cooking, feeding
and singing, dancing.
We will give shelter, welcome. 
We will paint, repair, pray.
We will wash our shoes 
by walking through 
puddles of grief
and watching ripples dance. 
We will dine on courage 
and transformation.

The tyrants will try 
to stir up fear, 
sorrow, shame.
But they’ll have
no chance 
if we’re ready--
and really willing--
to risk all security, comfort
for the sake of the cross, 
the depth of communion, 
the glory of bread 
made God, made human.

By the bonds of being a we 
we'll walk together into 
peace, beauty and liberty; 
we’ll walk back to being
humanity: faces, voices,
a people crossing a river
and becoming blessed 
in the moonlight.