A Silent Prayer – Original Poem (Response to White Nationalist Debate)

By Mark A. Leon

What do I have to do to make you love me?
What do I have to do to make you care?

Every street corner a reminder
Every ruin of a home lost in the countryside, a tear of sadness

Statues and tombstones are but symbols of the warriors of a land divided
Freedom, slavery, black and white
Moral injustice, capitalism and growth

Naked footsteps in the cotton field
A woman’s body nothing more than a machine for more labor
Cries of silence buried in the wind
The blood of a thousand souls melting in the heat

A Southern way, gone, but not yet forgotten
Powerless, the fight continues
Armed with cameras and words, hatred has the center stage

The cinema now showing a film of succession and ignorance
Bleeding from the left, gauging from the right

If we tear down the symbol, will the hate be gone?
We will find unity in a country where the wounds never fully healed?

Are we victims of color?
Patriots and mercenaries

The battlefield is dry, but the war has only begun

On these knees, I say a prayer
To the living, the dead and the unborn

Find peace in the soul
Equality in the heart
Serenity in unity

Let us be one
Let us stand strong

The light will shine once again for all to share