I wrote this poem in reflection to watching the video and reading and hearing various comments about the school girl and school resource officer at Spring Valley High School in South Carolina. While there are a plethora of things to take away from this incident, one thing is certain, we must be ever vigilant to do what is best for our children, our public schools, those in law enforcement, and especially our faith. Enjoy and please share your positive feedback in the comments.
The Seat of Justice
By Lorenzo Neal
She sat in her desk with pain in her heart
Knowing at that moment she didn’t want to fight against her pain
She sat, resisting the call to leave
She sat. Knowing she was willingly disobeying a direct order from authority
She sat and then he came.
He beckoned her to move yet she remained
Her poise had been set. She would not be moved
Her anger had been charged and she felt she had nothing to lose
So she sat and then it happened
She felt the tug of a heavyweight lifter
She resisted more fiercely and his pull and move became swifter
She tugged and he pulled so and the intensity blistered with the sound of pain and gain
He pulled and then pushed her
She rolled like a stuffed doll no longer worth playing with
The encounter brief but now locked into eternity as her classmates captured the pain of her ejection
The video goes viral. The students report the nuisance they felt at the moment
They now are made to all look like thugs, resisting authority for just a bit of history to be made that day
The news reports come and go
The opinions between who was right and who was wrong take center stage yet she remains broken
Not hurt from the scars, the laughs, the reprimands, or the demands for better behavior
She’s burned by the lies of a systemic failure to care for her most basic need.
The need to be wanted and loved
This tragedy will only grow deeper as we neglect the grim reaper tearing apart homes and hearts
Leaving loneliness and anger in its track. The real victim is the truth
Not truth from the media who’s goal is to get greedier as the story gets bigger and badder and the thirst
for black lives and blue lives claim more lives and we all stand idly by wondering why
It’s deeper than the moment we witnessed
This thing has gone enough distance and we must cry out for justice
Not ours but His
We must have righteous anger so that sin will disappear and
When we all get to heaven what a day of rejoicing that will be
When we all see Jesus instead of just us then we will know who we be
And all will come clean
There’ll be no more pulling or shoving
But plenty of loving our neighbor as ourselves
Until we are all poured out as empty vessels
Free Indeed
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