THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES
by Joyce Datiles
A Poem written from behind the lines during the June 2020 #JusticeforGeorgeFloyd protests, a poem for all time
One day when you are old
you will look back at yourself today:
At the person who took to the streets
The girl who braved a thousand guns
The boy who challenged the might of wrongful kings.
They’ll say of us, when we have won this battle,
These were the ones who fought the world’s Powers
They were the Heroes of all Hours.
When they fought
They were looking at the future and the past
All at once, caught
In between the torrents of darkness
Cast
From the ghosts of slaves stolen,
Their worth listed on parchment, their blood on the sands.
To the souls of queens who moved the earth’s core
Their ancestors stolen from their motherland’s shores.
Glimpse at the celestial futures
Those brave ghosts have carved
So you can watch the sun rise from here and not from afar.
Fight, little heart, FIGHT
For that glimpse of no returns
For that voice that quivers and quakes
So yours can be calm and firm.
For that, dear one, is the sound we need to always keep
Of voices raised, thundering in the deep.
That will be the music of the spheres
That moves this world and takes its fears
We will be those movers,
The ones foretold
Who fought injustice
With hearts of gold.
There is no true freedom until Black Lives Matter. Raise the banner. Never let it fall.