Light Your Lamps
This poem was co-written and performed with Theresa Göttl Brightman.
Theresa’s stanzas are left-justified, mine are right-justified. The final stanza combines both our voices.
When the bombs start falling
and people are marked--
on their hands, on their foreheads,
on their backs--
marked as "us" or "them",
light your lamps.
When peace… is shattered into pieces,
and the shards are but more rubble on the street,
light your lamps
When a generation of babies
half a world away
is raised by the missiles and shells--
the only parents left to them, the missiles and shells--
to show them how to live in this upturned world,
light your lamps.
When those bombs and missiles and shells
proudly bear the label “made in America,”
light your lamps
When the food is not food
and the air is not air,
light your lamps.
When the water tap leaks lead,
leaks arsenic, leaks uranium,
light your lamps
When the clock ticks down to zero,
light your lamps.
When the calendar has turned its final page,
light your lamps
When birds fall from the sky
because there is no sky left for them to fly,
light your lamps.
When fish gasp for breath
through our plastic, through our pollution,
light your lamps
When money writes the laws and
money decides the courtroom verdicts
and money is leader
and money is king
and money is milk,
light your lamps.
When our country bends its knees
to pray to the all-powerful God of profit,
light your lamps
When boys die on the street,
on their front porches,
in their backyards,
because uniform is afraid of skin,
light your lamps.
When propaganda hijacks history,
when truth is replaced with more comfortable fiction,
light your lamps
When you write a list like this
and it doesn't even feel like it matters,
light your lamps.
When you feel like *you* don’t matter,
light your lamps
When the quietest voice in the quietest house
is afraid to even whisper above the stars,
light your lamps.
When the loudest voice in the loudest house
is filling others with fear,
light your lamps
When you need a map,
when your sister needs a guide,
when your brother has no home,
light your lamps.
When your daughter sees a world
that doesn’t accept her for who she is,
light your lamps
When the snow is thick
and the rain is thick
and the smoke is thick,
light your lamps.
When your child can only see darkness, despair,
light your lamps
When food has run out,
when strength has run out,
when faith has run out,
light your lamps.
When we have food to spare,
when we have strength to spare,
when we have faith to spare,
light your lamps
When you stand in safety,
but know there are others
caught in storms, calling for help,
light your lamps.
When - despite the misery and injustice of the world,
you look up and see the sun,
setting so beautifully in the sky,
light your lamps
And sometimes,
just because you are happy,
just because you are joyful,
because you are tired,
because you are celebrating,
because you are bored,
because you don't need any reason at all,
light your lamps.
Written December 20, 2023