I’m amazed at how we go
Day to day around this course

First speaking with gentle tongues
Then those words turn harsh and coarse.

The anger and hurt we hold
To ourselves and each other

Strains hard on those relations
Me as dad – You as mother

Seeking changes in the way
I have been living my life

Knowing full well what you mean
You want more – to be my wife

How you tire of the wait
One that’s born out of a choice

When you turned the home we shared
Into one with just one voice

Over time we both have changed
Yet in us some things remain

Memories have stayed intact
Spend my days holding that pain

You still see the world through eyes
Searching hard for just one sign

Lashing out at everything
That goes against your timeline

Here we stand at this crossroads
Feeling ready to move on

You approach with angst and dread
Weary from singing this song

What you seek can’t be with me
You feel that I want an ‘out’

If only you understood
You’re so wrong – I have no doubt

You are part of all I want
When I think of ‘family’

Shared bed, shared car, shared mortgage
All these joys with you, I see.

But I fear this ride has charged
A high toll on you and I

Now I fear we’ve lost the strength
To give ‘us’ another try.

Maybe time is what we need
To mend the past – I don’t know

Maybe the ride’s truly done
And it’s apart we must grow.

When all the dust has settled
That is the time
We each should look

To find how we’ve all reached here
What wrongs were done
What paths we took

Many lives throughout the past
Have been ruined
Through hate, through fear

The future will see the same
Unless there’s change
That’s just and clear.

We are judged by what is seen
My skin’s color
Projects a view

An image forged through stories
That in my life
Might not be true

My race denotes a status
Within a land
Where race, divides

Yet racism’s billed as dead
Really in truth
It lays and hides.

And the truth is also that
Some who are seen
To be my kin

Help spur this image’s reach
By choices made
Bringing chagrin

Before attacking a group
Or laying blame
As we react

Take note of the ills we cause
Stereotypes
Can stem from fact

The changes must come from self
As we advance
The common goal

Of approaching a true end
Of racism’s
Treacherous hold

In order for ‘us’ to win
There truly needs
An ‘us’ to be

No battle’s ever been won
With a fractured
Or lost army.

Where we go as time moves on
Lies on a path
From steps now made.

Will we meet tomorrow’s world
Still underneath
Racism’s shade.