Remembering Hurricane Katrina

Flashback to flag draped on my grandmother
Flashback to my sons and daughters waiting and crying for those who would never come
Flashback to my mothers' hunger, not just for food but for justice
Flashback to my fathers' empty hands and searching, angry eyes

Waters not washing but flooding
Waters revealing the systematic dehumanization of a people
again
of my people
again

troubled waters stirring up historical traumas
met with invisibility and dehumanization

this time, they say it will be different
have we not heard it before
never again, they cry
never again, we cry

to the people of the Sudan, never again
to the raped girls on college campuses, on school buses, in back rooms, in their homes, never again
to the young boys gang raped in prison, never again
to the people of New Orleans, never again

I'll fly away, oh glory, I'll fly away
but what happens when your wings are weighed down by oil, by greed, by racism, by sexism, by poverty

we are looking for the blessing in the storm
we are uncovering the truth that the only blessing is if we are stunned into, shamed into, inspired into laying down our dysfunction, our fear, our hatred
tic toc
time will tell
if we are learning to be one nation, if we are learning to be global citizens, if we are learning to unlearn our complacency, learning to confront the miseducation of our minds, learning to let hearts beat with compassion and the urgency of NOW!