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