LIGHTING THE WAY

I can plant my body in the soil.
Use the tears I have shed
To water my growth. Light the
Way, with the insight I have gained,
Through the never-ending, mangled
Vines of a tangled life.

I need no glasses to see
Nor sound to hear the drum
Beats calling my name, the triumph
Bellowing deep in the night, moving
Through an old shack in North Carolina,
Crossing the Mississippi Delta, and into an
Alabama prison – where a jail cell door
Slams in the face of another innocent man.

I painted the shack white,
And I know it’s okay to go inside—
I only wish I had come sooner.

Barbara Newsome, 2009