Springtime Gon' Come Fierce

Sometimes my heart beats slowly
Breathing in the world's worries like Buddhist monks
And breathing out a mantra

One day
It will
Stop

Mothers shackled to the floors of jails their sons died in
Watching life slip away in crowded emergency room lobbies
Bleeding world
Bleeding world
Tear open my fingertips and touch it
Vacuum veins sucking poison from the screaming planet
Osmotic flow toward the center of my universe
Get as much as you can whiteboy
Come back for more next time

Hold heart breath long enough in hopes of alchemy
Soft strength of elders plus firm sensitivity of youth
Plus destructionpainmiseryinsanity
And turn it to words
Words to vision
Vision to reality
Breathe clean into the haze
Warmth into the cold

One day
It will
Stop

One day
It will
Stop

One day
It will
Stop

Believe it because we have to
Exhale the truth that wakes us in the morning

One day
It will
Stop

And Springtime gon' come fierce

Bryan Proffitt is a teacher, writer, activist, and organizer in Durham, NC.